The Girl Who Became A Self Insert
by One Nameless Author
Summary: When you suddenly find yourself falling to your death, that in itself is pretty messed up. But that little problem gets even worse when you use the Chosen of Sylvarant to break your fall.
1. I Use the Chosen as a Landing Cushion

MUST…FINISH…CHAPTER…BEFORE PASSING OUT…ON DESK.

Yeah, so, guess who finally finished that re-writing?! That's right, I did. Because I'm awesome. Colds are NOT awesome, though. Had one the entire time I was writing this. Kept sneezing every 5 minutes, eyes watering from stingy nose, scratchy throat, the works. Nomming on chicken didn't help at all. Neither did those 5 glasses of water I drank trying to write this.

Fuck, I need sleep. I'm rambling. Never a good sign.

Also the fact that it took me 5 minutes to write that sentence because my fingers kept fumbling on the keys.

Read if you want, and reviews are welcome, but not demanded. Don't give I shit if you decide to leave criticism, because I _crave_ it.

(5/25) = I got rid of all those edit messages to leave just this one:

THIS CHAPTER HAS EDITS. QUITE A LOT OF EDITS. HOLY BALLS THERE ARE A LOT OF EDITS. BITCH BE TRIPPIN' EDITS.

Now please enjoy the chapter. :U

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia. It belongs to Namco Bandai. Or whatever the hell made this game.**

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**Chapter 1: I Use the Chosen as a Landing Cushion**

"_Be sure to do some laundry before I get home."_

"Got it, Dad. Anything else?"

"_Yeah, I also want you to vacuum the living room."_

"...Dad, Amber did that _yesterday_. Why do I have to do it again?"

"_Have you seen that damn carpet? It looks like its growing moss. It won't take you more than twenty minutes - just do what I told you, alright?"_

"Egh, fiiine. I _really_ don't see the point thought."

"_Just get it _done, _please?_ _Alright, I'll see you later."_

"'Kaaaaay. Bye, Dad."

_Beep._

I sigh as the screen on my cell phone flashes, signaling the call has ended. My dad is so friggin' weird when it comes to cleaning the carpet. I mean...yes, it does get dirty a lot, but really? We don't need to vacuum it every other day. It just wastes electricity.

After a moment, I shrug to myself, resigned. I then begin fiddling around with the hidden pocket on my hoodie for a second, before dropping my phone back with my MP3 player in the pocket. I like that this hoodie has this thing - it's convenient, and...it's also the only way I can keep from losing stuff when I'm wearing this particular hoodie. They just...don't seem to stay in the normal pockets.

I then proceed to have a staring contest with the living room carpet…which now that I'm looking at it, I see that it is actually _very_ dirty. I do not understand how this thing always ends up so friggin' dirty when we vacuum it every other day. I mean, I know it's a pretty plush carpet, and we always walk on it, and we have six pets that walk over it, but SHEESH. It looks like a stampede of…of, um…dirty, hairy things ran over it.

...Wow, that's the best I can come up with? Dirty, hairy things? Way to go Cassie. You suuuuuck.

…Y'know what? Forget Dad, I _really_ don't feel like vacuuming right now. Nobody's coming home yet, anyways, so why should I do it now? Amber's at her cleaning job, Mom's in Arkansas visiting relatives, Dad's at work, and Stormie's still at school doing...something (tutoring?). I can just do it later...or at least a half-hour from now.

Right now, I kind of feel like playing a game. Don't know what kind, but I want it to beeee...something on the Gamecube. Yes.

I pull myself up from the couch, placing Tappie, who was lying on my lap, on the floor as I do. The black-and-white hound dog stares at me for a minute, making me feel a bit guilty, before launching herself at her toy duck, and begins to mutilate it via face chewing.

She is the reason all our squeaky toys are broken. Honestly.

As she does…_that_, I make my way down the small hallway attached to the living room, which also leads to my bedroom, where the Gamecube awaits me.

I stretch as I walk down the hallway, my sock covered feet creaking on the old floorboards. Wood floors are nice and all, but it makes it almost impossible to be sneaky in this house, I swear. To me, that's a problem, because I like to sneak up on random people whenever they visit, and scare the crap out of them.

Stupid floor…

When I make it to my bedroom, I make an immediate left, heading for the small TV, and with it, the stack of Gamecube games. I clear some of Stormie's stuff away from the front of the TV (translation: throw all of it on her bed), before going through the medium sized pile on the dresser in search of a game to play.

Let's see here…how about Wind Waker? Mmh, probably not. I don't really feel like sailing around on an ocean.

Paper Mario?…Naaah, not in the mood.

What about Resident Evil 4? That would be a big HELL no. I can never get past that freakin' claw guy.

...Ugh, this is ridiculous. I'm seriously tempted to steal the PS2 out of Amber's room and play one of those games. Either that or drag the Wii up here so I can play Animal Parade.

I sigh, promptly sitting then falling onto my back on the spare mattress, which we keep in the middle of the floor.

Jeez, boredom is so annoying.

…Wait, what's that game? Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a game case shoved under Stormie's bed. How the hell did that get there? Frowning slightly, I reach over and pick it up, then hold it up to my face to see what it is.

Tales of Symphonia…haven't played that in a while. I sit up, staring at the case as I try to remember when I last played this game. If I remember correctly, last time I played, I got stuck at the Temple of Lightning. That place is a total bitch.

…Well, there's nothing else to do. I _guess_ I can start a new game.

Sighing again, I click the case open while I stand up, pulling out the first disc of the game. I have to remove Licorice McButton from the top of the Gamecube, sliding the disc onto my finger for a minute while I do so, before actually popping open the console top.

Suprisingly, there wasn't even a game in there in the first place, so I just go ahead and pop in the game disc, close the lid, and turn on the power button.

As I turn on the TV, my stomach suddenly decides to tell me that it wants food…rather noisily, I might add. It's probably because I skipped lunch today. I knew I shouldn't have, even if I didn't have any money. I always regret it when I do, which is rarely, because my stomach decides to try and eat itself!

…Then again, the school food is really gross, but that's beside the point!

So, while the game loads, I head towards the kitchen to get myself a little snack. Because those make everything better.

I have to hang with my two doofus dogs, Sophie and Maya, first, because both of them are waiting for me in the living room when I come out. When I finally get there, the puppies around my legs, I immediately move to open the pantry door and grab myself two Fiber One Brownies. Now, usually I don't eat them, but my mom just picked up the Chocolate Chip kind, which...is my favorite.

Sooooo...omnomnom.

As I devour my brownie (mmmm…), I walk back towards my room, ignoring the dogs walking all over my feet. I can't hear the game yet, so it must still be loading. Most likely because of when I let my cousin Brianna borrow the game. Because of her, the disk has so many scratches it always glitches near the opening.

And _just_ as I thought, when I walk into the room, I see that yes, the game has _once again_ failed to load, and is now showing a blank grey screen. Damned thing.

"Stupid Gamecube." I growl, looking down at the silver box. This thing makes me so mad, sometimes. I try whacking and shaking it a few times, but to my dismay, it does nothing to fix the screen - only causes a bit of static to appear. Damn, that usually works…

Oh well…I guess I should just turn it off and find something else to do. Maybe I'll dig out Magical Melody and play that for a bit.

Sighing, I reach to turn off the game console-

And cry out when I'm suddenly blinded by a flash of light. Instinctively, I fling my arms in front of my face to cover my eyes. I'm suddenly filled with a feeling of weightlessness, causing my stomach to leap up into my throat, as well as the sensation of being tossed around. I also hear rushing air around me. Confused, I open my eyes lightly, only to be greeted by a confusing rush of blue and white in front of my eyes.

The hell is up with…

Oh my fuck, I'm falling.

I don't even try to figure out _why_ I'm suddenly falling from the sky, when I was just in my room, due to the fact that I am now screaming and flailing like a dying fish. Also, there's the fact that I'm pretty sure that I'm _going to_ _diE HOLY FUCKING __**GOD-**_

_Crack!_

What remains of my though process is pretty much shattered when my back collides with something hard. All the wind gets knocked out of me, cutting off my screaming.

The next thing I know, there's pain flowing all throughout my body as I fall and tumble through…what I _think_ is a tree. Or several trees. I can just barely see some broken branches flying past me as I'm thrown around, so that's what I'm going with.

All of a sudden, I come to an abrupt stop from all my falling. It takes me a second to realize that I've become caught on a large branch, thanks to my hoodie.

Actually, it...takes me a second to figure _anything _out, because all that's going through my head right now is "HOLY OOOOOOOOOWOWOW". Because pain. A _lot_ of pain.

Groaning a few choice profanities, I open my eyes slightly to see a blurred landscape...a really high blurred landscape. And also, I have double vision. I shake my head slightly to clear it, flinging my arms around the nearest branch before I open my eyes again. My legs stay dangling in the air, which doesn't comfort me _at all._

Um, okay...everything's still all blurry. Why? Why is everything blurry? I carefully take one hand up off the branch to try rubbing my eyes, going under my glasses – oh. Okay. They aren't there.

Welp. That would explain it.

I sigh deeply, dropping my hand back around the branch as I try to think. Okay...okay, what the fuck just happened? Why did I just get dropped into a bunch of trees? Actually, why was I dropped into the fucking air? I just...I am so confused right now. And maybe slightly panicking. That's not good at all.

Okay, okay, calm down. Calm doooooown, freaking out doesn't solve anything. Just try and think. Thiiiiiiink...thinkthinkthinkthINK-

"…what's the temple like?"

The sudden voice snaps me out of my current thought process. I look toward the ground, in the direction of the voice, but my view is blocked by several branches.

Is there someone walking this way?

"We've never been inside, so it's kind of exciting!"

"Hmm, well, it's sort of dark because not much sunlight makes it through…"

"That's not quite what I was expecting…"

Oh, okay, a few people are coming. Sounds like about three of them. I strain to try and see them, gripping my handhold tighter, but the branches blocking my view make it next to impossible.

"…But, then again, I've never been to the inner part, either."

"Hmmm…I can't wait to get inside!"

"If only you could keep up this enthusiasm the entire time…"

It sounds like they're right below me now…Ugh, come _on_, why can't I _see_ them?!

_CRRK-_

The branch I'm currently gripping suddenly gives way, and I immediately begin to plummet. I manage to make a small yelp as I'm falling through the air, crashing and tumbling through the remaining tree branches. I'm met with clear air for two seconds, before I crash into something else with a fleshy sounding _thud_.

"GHOOF!"

"Agh!"

Silence follows my sudden landing. Of course, I don't really notice, as I'm trying to remember how to _breathe_. Holy mother of fuck, I landed _hard._ It feels like...literally _all_ the air got knocked out of me. Luckily, I...I think I landed on something soft, so I don't think I'm in bad shape. I hope.

Wait…what exactly did I land on? I could have sworn that it made a noise…

Slowly, I open my eyes, which I had apparently closed when I landed. It takes me a second to see well enough to make out certain objects, due to my glasses being missing. When it does clear (somewhat…) I find out that I'm now lying on my back. Which is sort of...confusing to me, because I'm pretty sure I fell face first.

Well, first thing that I see is the sky, surrounded on two sides by tree branches. Of course it would be, seeing as I just fell through, like, twenty of them. When I arch my head back slightly, I see…some oddly colored blobs. I'm guessing that they were the people that were talking earlier. One of them is a big blob of red, while the other is a smaller blue blob. That strikes me as pretty odd, for some reason.

…Wait. Wasn't there a third person with them…?

I feel something shift underneath me, snapping me out of my sudden thought.

"Ow…"

Ooooooh shit.

Slowly, I turn my head to the left, in the direction of the voice. Blonde hair dominated my vision, and as I watch, it shifts to reveal a pair of blue eyes, staring at me.

Holy shit, I just landed on someone.

I make a noise akin to a loud 'blargh', and quickly roll off the person I used as a cushion. As I do that, I realize that I landed right on their front, so I was on top of them with my head right next to theirs. Holy crap, awkward. And now I just feel the overwhelming urge to apologize profusely to them.

Of course, that urge is buried over the sudden urge to scream _several_ profanities at the SHARP, THROBBING _PAIN_ that is now flowing through me. Probably from my sudden movement just now.

I end up on my stomach, curled in a ball and uttering a _long_ stream of curse words through gritted teeth, as I hear running feet come in my direction. I'm pretty sure they belong to that poor person's companions, coming to see if they're okay. I can barely make out what they're saying over my loud swear-a-thon, though.

"Colette, are you okay?!" Okay, that sounded like a dude. That's one of the companions, I believe.

"Yes, I think so." And that must be the person that I landed on, a girl by the sound of it. That just makes things worse! I landed on some poor girl…

…Wait a minute.

Colette?

I bite my lip to stop anymore swears coming out, and slowly turn my head to the right, trying to peer through my long hair. I don't feel like uncurling myself to remove it, so I'm just gonna try to look through it.

Through my very blurred and obscured vision, I see large red and white blurs dominating my vision. I can't make out who they are, but I can see one of the two companions kneeling next to the girl, who is the white blob that I saw. She's sitting up now, and from what I can tell, she's holding her head.

I close my eyes again, and keep taking deep breaths so I don't end up cursing out loud again. I can't make them out, thanks to my stupid eyesight. Or it could be that my eyesight is even worse from that large impact I had. My head hurts a lot right now.

I flinch a bit when I feel a hand on my upper back. "Um…you okay?" Hm, I don't recognize that one. Must be the blue person from earlier.

Slowly, I pull myself up until I'm supporting myself on my hands. I'm still in a kind of ball, but not by much. My head spins when I open my eyes, looking at my hands pressed into the dirt. I blink sharply, then look towards the person next to me.

"-AGH!"

…If you don't know, that was me. I'm not one to scream randomly, believe me, but If you just saw what I did…well, you'd be freaked too.

The person next to me is close enough for me to see his look of shock by my sudden outburst. Some of his silver-colored fringe covers his blue eyes, but I can still see them widen in shock. I take notice of his familiar blue outfit as he backs away slightly. Next to him, I see something that, even with my blurred vision, I register as a hammer-like object with a red ball attached.

I'm...staring at Genis Sage.

Genis Sage.

GENIS.

FRIGGIN'.

_SAGE._

From Tales of Symphonia.

"Wh-what?" he stammers. I don't reply to that, as I'm too busy freaking out that I'm looking at _Genis Sage._ WHO IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE REAL.

I just about have a brain-snap when I remember the two behind me. If Genis is here, then…

I turn around, and sure enough, the two people are still there, and I can practically _feel_ their eyes on me. The red person- who I now realize is _Lloyd Irving_- is still kneeling next to the girl I landed on…who I now realize is Colette.

Which means…

I landed on the Chosen of Sylvarant.

…Crap.

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Okay, now that I've edited this chapter, I feel _immensely _better. :3

I will be editing the other chapters too, once I get the time, so be sure to look out for that.

Oh, by the way, Licorice McButton is one of my Gloomy bears. He guards my Gamecube when I'm not using it. XD

**Next Time: Developing an intense hatred for trees.**


	2. Hate for Trees

Hey, look, second chapter.

WHEE.

Yeah, so I took my dear time updating this. It's been, what…almost 7 months? Little too long of you ask me. Still, I finally got it done, so…meh.

Let's answer some reviews while I'm at it.

Chang-Tong

This is the second time a 1st chapter of one of my stories has been reviewed by an author I like. WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING THAT THIS KEEPS HAPPENING

And I really had no idea that you were looking around in my deviantART! That makes me happy! (then again I did do that fanart of your character)

I'm really glad that you liked the first chapter! And I'm sorry you couldn't really get a read on how I write and stuff. It's hard for me to make a good first impression in the first chapters of my stories.

Kenegi

Nice to see you again! I've seen you around in K.A.Y. :D

And for the whole screaming thing, it's actually hard to hear people scream as they fall through the air, due to all the wind. You only kind of start hearing them as they get closer to the ground.

I'm suddenly imagining the villagers getting really confused at a far off screaming. XD

Piezelle

It is a proven fact that I can play games a dozen times, and still forget the names of places and about half of their plots. It's just how I work. ;)

And it's nice to hear you're making your own fic! I hope it turns out for the best.

**(5-26) =** YAAAAAAY EDIIIIIIIIITS

**DISCLAIMER:** **I don't own Tales of Symphonia. I can't come up with something that good.**

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**Chapter 2: Hate for Trees**

…Um, hi again. I'll bet you're wondering what happened after the last time I talked to you.

Well, after I realized that I was in a completely fictional world (what), and that I had landed on one of the most important characters there (WHAT), and that I was _not _having some sort of weird dream (_WHAT)_…well, I uh, kiiiind of freaked.

Meaning that I bolted out of there like my fucking ass was on fire.

I don't know how long I was running, or even _why_ I started running. Possibly from panic, who knows. All I know is that I ended up sprinting into some part of the forest surrounding the path, completely leaving the group of fictional characters behind.

I ran for a good amount of time, all the while going _very _much insane with the fact that 1) I was _not_ on my own world anymore, 2) that I had somehow ended up in a fictional universe, and 3) that I was friggin' _screwed_ because I had no idea what I was gonna do…y'know, the works.

That all ended when I ran face first into a tree.

And _that's _where our little flashback ends. With me writhing on the ground holding my face.

After a few moments, I pull myself up with a groan, and begin cautiously feeling my face. Luckily, I didn't break my nose…but it does throb a lot. My bottom lip is bleeding, though, so I didn't come out completely unscathed. There's also a weird ringing in my ears, but that's just from getting whacked in the head. I would know.

Good news: I've calmed down _considerably_ because if my whack to the face. Guess it helped to clear my head…that, or short-circuit it, at least. You can't really think of anything serious when your face feels like a throbbing mess.

Bad news: ...it didn't help my situation. Of course it wouldn't. Even if it did, I'm still stuck in a fictional world, I _still_ have no idea what's going on, and I have absolutely no idea what I'm gonna do. There isn't exactly a manual you can follow for this kind of thing (like when you get lost in the woods), because…well, people don't just _randomly_ end up in different worlds.

And I still have no idea _why_ I ended up here.

I bury my face in my hands and groan, trying to bury the feeling of dread running through me. I know that panicking won't solve anything, as I just figured out a few minutes ago, but still…can't really help it.

Maybe looking around will help…have to give it a shot, at least.

I take a quick breath, then drop my hands, looking around. It looks like I didn't get too far…just a bit further into that forest area I was in. And on an unrelated note, I lost my socks somewhere when I was running, so I'm now barefoot.

It looks like I started to head out of the forest-y area though, as there aren't that many trees around. They're just scattered here and there, along with a couple of bushes. At least…I think they're bushes. I don't know, they're just these little green blurs in my vision, so that's what _I'm_ going with.

Now that I think about it…the path to the Martel Temple was pretty bare, wasn't it? It was pretty much just a big plain, from what I remember from playing the game and watching the OVA's. So I guess that when I landed in all those trees, I was pretty close to…Iselia, right? I'm pretty damn sure that was the name of the village.

Hey, I haven't played it in forever. Leave me alone.

I purse my lips, thinking. Okay, so…if Lloyd's group was leaving Iselia towards the temple…that means that Colette was going to receive the oracle.

And that means that I got warped into the beginning of the game.

…Speaking of which, how the hell did that happen? Now, I'm no expert in physics and shit, but I know that you can't just randomly get sucked into a video game!

Did my Gamecube, like…explode from me whacking it? …Uh, wait no, that couldn't be right…I didn't even hit it that hard.

Mabye some random portal opened up and sucked me in?

…Nah, I don't think so.

"Ugh…" I groan, slapping a hand to my face. "This is getting me nowhere." I drag my hand across my face, letting it flop back into my lap. "…Maybe I should just head towards the temple. Might be my best bet."

Pause. "Why am I talking to myself?"

Mabye I _am_ going insane.

* * *

"Stupid cliff…why the fuck was there a cliff, anyways?! I don't remember one being there before! This is supposed to be a plains area!"

Since you're just tuning in again, I'm gonna give you an update. After my little face smacking incident, I decided to try to meet up with Lloyd's group at the temple (because that's _totally _the sane thing to do). Luckily, I didn't run into any random monsters (which was kind of weird) on my way there. However, I _did _manage to run into about three more trees, two bushes, and one pond. So I ended up with a few more bruises to match my previous ones, and I got soaking wet.

Go me.

I noticed that as I was walking, the trees around me started to grow even thinner, so I wasn't really waking in a forest anymore…just some plains and cliffs with random trees at points. Which kind of made sense, as there wasn't any trees near the Martel Temple. It was in the nook of a big cliff in the game. But since there weren't any _real_ landmarks where I was walking anymore, I wasn't really able to tell if I was getting any closer to the damn place.

Then, to make matters worse, I fell down a cliff.

…No, I'm totally serious. I fell down a cliff.

How whacked up is that?

I have no idea _where_ that cliff came from, honestly. I probably just couldn't make it out in the landscape because of my bad eyesight. What I _do_ know is, I fell down it. Which is how I ended up in my current situation.

Stuck in a tree.

…AGAIN.

At this point, I'm pretty sure that life has one fucked-up sense of humor.

I've been hanging in this tree for about an _hour_ now, and it's…well, really annoying, because I got myself pretty tangled and twisted up from falling into it. I'm not exactly upside-down, but I'm…sssssomewhat like that. More like I'm at a downward angle of sorts. My right leg is bent awkwardly somewhere above my head (owowow), my left foot is stuck in some sort of tree hollow, and my left arm is snagged and pinned on a big ass branch above my head. I've tried to get myself untangled many times, but I only ended up making it worse.

Also, I was afraid I'd make myself fall out of the tree, so now, I'm just kind of…dangling here. Like a piece of escaped laundry.

I'm starting to lose feeling in my limbs, to tell the truth.

Vainly, I try to untangle my arm from the branches again, but to no such luck. I think I only succeeded in getting it tangled further. I groan, wiping my face with my free hand. Jeez, I've gotten myself into quite a predicament here.

I think it's quite obvious that the world does not like me right now.

…

You know what.

Fuck this.

"This. _is._ _RIDICULOUS!"_ I finally scream. "First, I get sucked out of my home, then fall through the friggin' _sky_ and land in a tree, _land _on someone who didn't even deserve to be _landed on_, faceplant into _another tree_," I suck in a deep breath, and scream at the top of my lungs in frustration, "_And then fall off a CLIFF and LAND IN THE ONLY TREE FOR FUCKING __**MILES **__AROUND! FUCK. MY. __**LIFE**__!"_

"Uh…"

I let out come choice swear words and flail at the voice that came from somewhere below me, causing about a dozen tree leaves to fall around me. I look down, to see…two familiar, bright colored blurs.

…Well. They got done quicker than I thought they would.

I stare at them for a few seconds, before speaking back up. "Um…hhhhhi."

Silence from the two below. And since I'm still half-blind from lack of glasses, I can't tell what kind of looks they have on their faces.

"…Well, this is…awkward." I sigh after a few more seconds. Seeing as there's a lack of response from below.

"How'd you get up there?" Oop, spoke too soon. I look at the source of the voice, which is Lloyd, and then point vaguely in the direction of the cliff with my free hand.

"I, uh…fell down that cliff." I feel my face redden as soon as I admit it, because of how embarrassing it is. I drop my arm back down, so it's once again dangling in the air, as I wait for their reactions.

"You…fell down a cliff?" That would be Genis that time, repeating what I just told them.

My face gets slightly redder. "…Yeah."

"…How the _heck_ did you do that?" Lloyd again, and my embarrassment levels peak.

"I didn't see it!" I retort quickly, my voice coming out rather squeaky and cracked. Eugh. I clear my throat before continuing. "Look, as much as I want to continue this...awkward conversation, do you guys think you can help me out of this tree? I'm…kind of stuck." I shake my trapped arm again for emphasis, dropping a few more leaves to the ground.

"Why the heck should we do that?" Genis, sounding annoyed. "You landed on our friend! And then you just ran away!"

"I didn't mean to do that, honestly!" I reply, "I panicked! A-and I would really like to apologize if I could! But I can't unless I get out of this damn tree!" Silence. I heave a sigh, and continue. "Look, if you guys get me down from here, I'll...try to explain myself the best I can. Really."

More silence, but I see the blob that is Lloyd move slightly, so I'm guessing him and Genis are having some sort of silent exchange. I fidget around nervously as I wait for a response.

Finally, they see to come to some sort of agreement, as I see Lloyd move again. "Alright, we'll get you down. Just hang on a sec, alright?"

"It's not like I can do anything else." I mumble under my breath. They don't hear me, thank god, and I see Lloyd make his way over to the base of the tree. After a couple of seconds, I hear some scraping and rustling, so I'm guessing he's climbing up the tree trunk. Genis-blob moves towards the tree as well, most likely keeping an eye on his friend.

After a few more seconds, I hear a rustling almost directly behind me, and when I turn to look, I see the brown-haired swordsman stick his head through the leaves back there. He's closer to me now, so I can make him out better, and I see he's got a hand wrapped around one of the thicker branches, to help keep him up.

I give him a sort of half-hearted wave. "Hi."

He doesn't answer, and I see him look to where my foot's caught in the tree, before looking back at me dangling in midair.

"Wow, you really got yourself stuck, huh?" Even though I still can't make out his face, I hear him trying to disguise a laugh, and I scowl at him (at least I think I do). He turns back to my trapped foot. "Just hang on. I'll try to get your foot out."

"M'kay." I can't help but jump a little bit when he grabs my ankle with his free hand, even though he just told me what he was doing. I'm left to dangle there uncomfortably as he randomly jerks my foot around with his hand, trying to get it loose.

I can't help but cry out a little when Lloyd tugs it too hard at one point, and I look back at him. "Watch it! Don't just go yanking my foot like that!"

"Sorry." he replies, sounding slightly exasperated. "I've almost…got it." Another hard tug, and I exclaim again.

"Ouch!" Annoyed, I give him a glare. "It feels like you're trying to tear my foot off, not-"

I don't get to say the rest of that, as at that moment, he's finally able to free my foot. When he does, for _some_ reason, he lets go of my anke, and...I guess that foot was what was _apparently_ supporting me like I was, as suddenly all of my weight seems to shift to my trapped arm as my leg swings down.

Which finally causes that darned branch trapping my arm to finally break.

I do an involintary flip, as my freedom causes me to _yet again_ free fall into the air.

I let out a sharp yelp at the fast approaching ground, flailing my arms out in front of me, and I get a glance of Genis backing out of the way before I slam into the ground.

As soon as that happens, I hear a sharp _crack_ noise, and suddenly my left wrist is on fire with pain.

I cry out at the sharp, throbbing pain, and then writhe on the ground as my other wounds from my _last_ free fall from a tree flare up from the impact. And then that damn banch gets it's revenge on me, falling right onto my back, and I'm left half-sobbing into the ground while cursing very rapidly. I even say a few that I _never_ use, which should give you a good idea of how much pain I'm in.

When I'm able to stop cursing so much, I hear voices shouting something, and I hear a pair of footsteps coming towards me. I bite my lip to keep myself from cursing anymore, during which I find out it's now bleeding, and open my eyes to see Genis kneeling next to me again. About two seconds later, I see Lloyd drop down from the tree, and he joins him.

"Are you okay?" I hear Genis ask, and he sounds a bit worried. Since he's close now, I can make out most of his face, and he definitely looks worried.

I calm down enough to respond, rather difficultly. "No. Not okay. _Definetely _not okay."

I feel gloved hands grab my shoulders, and suddenly I'm sitting up, and Lloyd's looking at me. It takes me a minute to realize this, as my vision spins when I open my eyes. I decide to focus on my wrist, and I feel my stomach lurch when I see it bent at a weird angle.

The swordsman seems to notice this, and carefully picks up my hand from my lap. "Jeez...looks like you broke your wrist."

"No shit." I retort, my voice filled with pain. I'm ignored, but I do get a look from him, most likely for my language. I honestly can't bring myself to care, though.

Genis looks over at Lloyd. "What do we do?"

Lloyd looks at him. "We can take her to Professor Sage. She could help her." He then looks back to me. "Do you think you could follow us back to the village?"

I blink, which causes my head to throb. As much as I want to refuse, I don't think I could get anywhere else on my own…especially in my condition. So what choice do I have?

"Y-yeah…sure." I licked my lip absently, and recoiled slightly at the metallic taste of blood. I was in really bad shape, wasn't I? "H-how far away is it?"

"Not too far." Lloyd replies, and I can make out him smiling a bit. Possibly to reassure me. "We should get there in no time." He looks back down at my wrist then. "…We should probably do something about this first."

After a little bit of thinking, we decided it would be best to put my wrist in a sort of makeshift splint. Unfortunately for me, that meant that my wrist had to be put into the right place. Which meant me trying not to scream by uttering so many curses that Genis covered his ears as Lloyd snapped my wrist back into place.

Afterwards he gave me an Apple Gel to help the pain a bit. It felt really strange eating it, as it was some sort of gummi, but I was surprised by how fast it worked. I was still in pain, sure, but it was a bit less after taking it. And it really tasted like apples!

After that, we managed to make a temporary splint out of some sticks and a bit of gauze Genis was carrying. Guess you have to be prepared for everything here. Luckily, nothing else was broken or too badly bruised, so I was able to stand up okay, aside from some minor dizziness from my head injury. I'm pretty sure I was going to end up with a concussion at this rate.

"By the way," Lloyd starts as we leave, "What's your name?"

"Oh, um…" I think about it for a minute, before answering. "It's Cassie. Cassie Freeman." I decide to stick with my nickname here, as I'm not usually referred to by my full name.

"Well then, nice to meet you Cassie!" He extends his hand out towards me. "I'm Lloyd. And that's Genis over there." He nods at said half-elf, who just nods in conformation.

I stare at his hand for a second, before awkwardly taking it with my right hand, shaking. "Nice to meet you." I half-mumble. I drop my hand after a few seconds, and cradle my broken wrist with it. "Lead the way."

Away to Iselia we go, I guess. _Hopefully _I don't break anything else on the way there.

* * *

Removed what was here before because EDITED CHAPTER YEE.

Hopefully I'll actually get these all done. I think it would help a lot if I edited the older chapters. :Y

**NEXT TIME: The Village of Oracles.**


	3. Meet ups in Iselia

DID I SERIOUSLY JUST WRITE THIS ENTIRE CHAPTER IN ONE SITTING YES I DID

KISS IT

Yeah, so, I literally woke up this morning and immediately wanted to write the next chapter for this story. And I literally got this done in about 4 hours.

If only I could do this everyday.

So yeah, this chapter may be a bit shorter than the one before it, but at least it's a chapter. Plus I've been sitting at this computer writing this whole thing for four hours, so I don't think I need to write anymore for it.

Enjoy!

**(5-27) =** I think this is the chapter that I needed to edit the most. :I

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own this game.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Meet-ups in Iselia**

_"Hey, Lloyd…"_

_"Hm? What is it, Genis?"_

_"Are you sure we sure we should be taking this girl to the village? We don't even know her!"_

_"Hey, it's not like we have much of a choice now. Besides, she's hurt! We can't just leave her on her own, can we?_

_"…I guess not. I still don't trust her. Not after what she did earlier."_

_"Well, she said she didn't mean to do that. We should at least let her explain herself."_

_"…Yeah."_

* * *

Jesus fucking Christ, I am in _sooooo_ much pain right now.

So, I've been following Lloyd and Genis for about fifteen minutes now...and each one has been hell. Every step I take causes jolts of pain in my broken wrist, so that's bad. Plus, I'm still barefoot, so I've already had a few incidents where I've stepped on something sharp right in the middle of the road.

And if you add the injuries to my head and chest from landing in trees and the ground and just about everything else...I'm basically a walking bruise.

A little bit into our walk, we stopped by a pond on the side of the road (I'm pretty sure it's the one I fell in earlier…), and we stopped for a second so I could wipe the blood off my face from my busted lip. I was then able to get a good look at just how bad I looked to these guys, and..._yeesh_.

Something I didn't notice before was that I was starting to get a black-eye, most likely from my face-plant into the tree, and I had a pretty bad cut on my lip. Along with that, I noticed I had a variety of twigs and leaves in my _already_ messy hair, along with some rips and dirt mussed into my hoodie and just about...everything else on me.

I basically looked like a hobo who got into a fistfight and lost.

Afterwards, we kept walking on the trail towards the village without much conversation, aside from a short chat between Lloyd and Genis (which I could hear none of). While they were distracted by that, I checked out my hidden pocket to see if my MP3 and phone were still intact somehow. Amazingly, they were, aside from a small crack in the screen of my phone. No wonder I've been able to keep those things for about three years now.

Finally, Lloyd broke the silence between us by asking me a question.

"Hey, y'know how you said you fell off that cliff earlier?" he asks, turning to look back at me (I'm walking behind both of them, if you didn't know). Genis looks back at me as well, though I can't tell what look he's giving me. Stupid blindness.

"Uh…yeah?" I reply, which sounds kind of weird, as my voice is all hoarse from my constant screaming today. I awkwardly rub the splint on my wrist. "Why?"

"I was just...wondering how the heck you managed to do that." he replies, shrugging. "I mean…it's kind of weird for someone to just walk off a cliff, don't you think?"

"It's not my fault I didn't see it." I mumble back, rubbing my wrist again. "Stupid thing came out of nowhere…"

"How the heck can you _not_ see a cliff?" Genis says, a confused tone in his voice. I glare at him a little bit before replying.

"I'm not all that observant, okay!" I look at the ground. "It doesn't help that I have bad eye-sight…"

"Bad eye-sight?" Lloyd again. I can practically feel him looking at me, and I just shrug in his direction.

"Yup. I'm half-blind." I tap the side of my right eye with my finger. "Well...sort of."

"Wouldn't you have glasses then?" Genis asks. I turn to him.

"Well, I _did_, buuut I lost them somewhere when I...landed on your friend." I feel kind of awkward bringing that up, but I continue. "Anyways, _because_ of that, everything I see right now is just colorful blobs and blurs...including you two."

"Really?" Lloyd says, and he's not looking at me anymore. I think he's just looking off into space right now, but I can't tell at all.

"Mhmm." And with that small reply, the conversation drops, and we're left to continue walking in silence.

We continue walking for a little while, during which I get my first impression of a monster fight (I'm left cowering behind a tree while the two boys kill off some monster bunnies). As we begin to get closer to the village, the trees around us grow thicker once again. And I'm immensely thankful for that, as that means that I get to finally be healed soon! No more pain!

And then, to make things even better, I see something on the path in front of us that grabs my attention.

"Hey, what's that in front of us?" I ask, squinting my eyes to see it better. It looks…kind of like a bunch of broken branches in the middle of the road…oh wait! Is this-

"It looks like were you, um…landed on Colette." replies Lloyd, and he looks back at me. "Why'd you- Hey!"

Without waiting for him to finish, I run ahead of them to the side of the road, near where the branches are, and begin looking around the trees there.

Lloyd and Genis catch up to me rather quickly, standing behind me. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for my glasses." I reply, not looking at them. I drop to the ground to search better. "I lost them when I was in that tree up there, so they're probably somewhere around here..."

"Oh, right!" Lloyd again, and to my surprise, he begins looking around as well. "Genis, help out."

We spend a good amount of time searching the ground for my missing glasses. It's harder for me to look through the grass and other plant life around the trees, as I only have one hand to work with, but Lloyd and Genis make up for that.

I start to lose hope for finding them after a while, but just as I'm about to call it quits, Genis pops out from behind a bush near a large pine tree.

"Hey, are these them?" I look up towards him, and I can see he's holding something up - something rather small to my eyes. I walk towards him to see better, and sure enough, he's holding my glasses.

"Yes!" I exclaim, and I feel a grin on my face. He hands them to me, and I immediately look them over to see if they're broken at all. Thankfully, the lenses are intact. However, the frame is bend all out of shape, and the entire thing is covered in some sort of tree sap.

Luckily, those are things that can be easily fixed. It only takes me a few moments to bend the frame back into a suitable way, and wipe off most of the sap off the lenses. I put them back on, and almost sigh in relief. I can see again!

"Whoo!" I exclaim, fist pumping the air with my working hand. "Everything's cleeeeaaar again!" I look at my two companions, and since I'm finally able to see them clearly I can see they're giving me some funny looks. "And now I can actually see you two! …Uh, why are you looking at me like that?"

"You're...kinda weird, you know that?" Lloyd says, and he gets a bemused look on his face. I scowl, sticking my tongue out at him.

"Hey, you try walking around for an hour when everything's a giant blob. See how you like it." I turn to look back at the path, only slightly obscured by the trees around us. "How much farther do we have to go now?"

"It's not much further." Genis this time, and he points to my left. "The village is just up ahead." When I look at where at he's pointing, I see that he's right. Not too far off, I can see some rooftops of houses peeking through the trees.

"Well, that's good," I say, walking back towards the path, "because to be honest, I feel like crap right now." I look it too, but I don't say that.

"Yeah, we should hurry, so Raine can take a look at you." Genis again, following me along with Lloyd. Since I'm not supposed to know who that is, I look back at him with the best confused expression I can muster.

"Who's Raine?"

"Professor Sage." Lloyd speaks up, catching up to me rather quickly. "She's a healer. I'm sure she can fix you up." He looks ahead. "Of course, we'll have to wait 'till she get's back from the temple…"

"Brilliant." I had completely forgotten that Raine was supposed to be at the temple right now…most likely spazzing out at all the ancient stuff in there.

Looks like I'm gonna have to deal with this pain for a little bit longer.

* * *

_"Uh…uh-oh."_

_"What's wrong?"_

_"I forgot to return the Sorcerer's Ring!"_

_"Then we can just give it back to Phaidra."_

_"Say…"_

_"No."_

_"But we went through all that trouble to get it! No one's gonna get mad if we borrow it for a while! Come on! Please?"_

_"Ugh...fine, fine. You're not gonna do anything bad, are you?"_

* * *

_"I'm kind of disappointed…I thought the oracle was going to be a much bigger event."_

_"What sort of things were you expecting?"_

_"You know, something amazing!"_

_"Like what, for example?"_

_"An angel as big as a mountain comes flying down from heaven carrying the Tower of Salvation. Then he sticks the tower into the ground!"_

_"Um…yeah. Okay, Lloyd…"_

"...What the heck are you guys talking about?"

_"Just…don't ask."_

* * *

...This is incredibly boring.

We finally made it to the village a little bit after I found my missing glasses, during which Genis and Lloyd had some conversations that I recognized as Z-skits. I was only able to hear a bit of the last conversation, though, and…it was pretty weird, to be honest.

Afterwards, the pair led me to what I remember to be Colette's house, and I have to say, the village is a lot bigger than how they show it in the game. Of course, I should have expected that, as everything in the game was mini-sized. Also, you can't just expect to get around an entire village in less than a minute...then it wouldn't really be a village, would it?

Anyways, Lloyd and Genis left me outside the house while they went in to talk to Colette and everyone else, so I was left by myself. It was kind of weird getting strange looks from the villagers, though, so I decided to go and sit by one of the trees to the side of the house.

It's been about ten minutes now, and I'm incredibly bored.

The only good bit about being left alone is that I've been able to think a bit more about my current situation. After some inner debate with myself, I think I've figured out some sort of plan about what I want to do now.

Obviously, I can't justgo around this world by myself, as proven by my multiple injuries gained from me just walking around in a friggin' forest…so I think I'll try to stick around with Lloyd and his group as long as I can. Even though it would make me a sort of...self-insert, I guess.

I _still _can't find a way to explain how I got here, though. The most important info I can recall about what happened before I got here was that bright light and the sensation of me falling. That doesn't really explain anything, as it's really vague.

And for the moment, I'm going to rule out the idea that my Gamecube sucked me up, as that is the most clichéd excuse for self-inserts appearing in their respective worlds, and...also the most improbable. So it's _got_ to be something else…

I snap out of my thought process when I hear the slam of a door, and when I look towards the source, I see Lloyd and Genis emerging from the house, both looking pretty pissed off - Lloyd especially. I guess it was because they were told they couldn't go on the journey with Colette.

"Please, wait!"

The door to the house opens again, and none other than Colette steps out, rushing over to the two boys. I quickly stand and hide behind the tree, to keep from being noticed.

Before she's able to make it all the way over to them, Colette trips and lands on her knees, but picks herself up pretty quickly afterwards. Guess she's used to it by now.

She looks to the two in front of her, hands clasped in front of her chest. "I'm sorry."

"It's not like it's your fault." Lloyd replies, giving her a half-shrug.

Colette looks down, so I can't see her expression. "Oh yeah…I'm sorry."

"Listen!" Lloyd pauses, then sighs. "Agh, never mind."

Genis seems to remember something, and speaks up. "Oh yeah, happy birthday, Colette!"

Oh yeeeaaah, I forgot. Today was supposed to Colette's birthday, wasn't it? ...Yikes, now I feel even _worse_ for landing on her earlier. It looks like it wasn't just news to me, as I notice Lloyd stiffen when Genis brings that up.

Genis starts digging around in one of his pockets, continuing to speak. "I baked you some cookies." He pulls out a small package. "If I knew you'd be leaving tomorrow, I would have made something a little more special, but…"

Colette stops him. "No, no, I love your cookies! Thank you very much!"

Genis blushes at that, but hand her the little package. He then looks towards the swordsman next to him. "So what about you, Lloyd? You promised to make her a necklace, right?"

Lloyd suddenly looks _really_ uncomfortable. "…Uhhh…heh…"

Genis gives him a bland look. "…Don't tell me you forgot."

"Uh, it's…it's almost done." Lloyd stammers, trying to save himself. "Uh, I'll give it to you…tomorrow, before you leave. I swear!"

Lloyd, you're a liar and a fibber. Nice save, though.

"Really? I'm so happy!" Colette replies, seeming to be completely oblivious. "As soon as I find out when we're leaving, I'll go to your house to let you know."

"Isn't it going to be dangerous?" Lloyd asks her, suddenly serious. Colette just gives him a little smile.

"I'm the Chosen, remember? I'll be _fine_. See you later, then!"

She turns back to go into the house, but Lloyd seems to remember something before she can get there. "Oh, Colette, wait a second!" She stops, and turns back to look at him. "I almost forgot." He starts looking around, and it takes me a few moments to realize that he's looking for me. To help him out a bit, I walk out from behind the tree, and he spots me a second later.

I take a deep breath, before walking over to join them. Colette notices me then, and she seems to recognize me.

"Oh! Aren't you…" She starts, as I stop to stand next to Lloyd.

"Um, yeah…hi again." I say, before looking at the ground. I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I look up to see Lloyd staring at me, before glancing at Colette.

Yes, Lloyd, I can take a hint...

I give him a bland look, before stepping forward so I'm directly in front of the Chosen. I take a deep breath, before looking her in the eye. I _actually_ have to look down a bit to do this, as she's shorter than me (I've never noticed that…)

"I'm, um…I'm really sorry I landed on you earlier." I meant to pace myself a bit, but my words just seem to come out in a rush. "It was an accident, I swear, and I'm really, _really sorry if I hurt you at all_!"

The last bit of that came out really, really fast, and sort of quiet and I look towards the ground again as my face turns as red as a tomato.

Jesus, why do I have to be so bad with peopllle?

I feel a hand on my shoulder again, and when I look up again, I see Colette's right in front of me, giving me a friendly smile.

"It's okay!" She says, very happily, I might add. "You didn't hurt me at all, but it's really nice of you to apologize!"

I blink at her. I really have no idea why I'm so surprised, as I know from the game that she's usually like this. Still, she's just so...cheery…

I see her expression change, and I notice that she's looking at my lip, which is still sporting a fairly nice cut. "Oh, you're hurt!"

I look down then, and I think she notices that I'm holding my broken wrist. "Uh, yeah…sort of."

"Oh no…" she says, suddenly sounding worried, and she takes my wrist carefully. I cant help but flinch a bit. "What happened?"

"She fell out of another tree." Lloyd suddenly adds, and he's standing next to me all of a sudden. "Hey, do you think she could stay with you until the Professor comes back?"

I blink. Hold up, when did _that_ become part of the plan? "Whoa, um, I don't-"

"It's okay!" Colette interrupts, smiling at me again. "You can stay here until Professor Sage comes back!" She looks back to the other two then. "We'll see you later then!"

I start to protest again, but then Colette takes me by the other hand and begins leading me towards the house behind her, leaving me to helplessly trail behind her. I manage a quick glare at the two boys before I'm led into the house.

* * *

It doesn't pay to be a socially awkward idiot. Hopefully she finds this out before she gets herself into some more trouble. XD

You guys know the rest. Review if you want, and throw in some criticism if you desire. Let's see if I can get out the next chapter as fast as this one. :D

**(5-27)** = Let me know if this chapter still needs some tweaks...I feel like it does. :P

**NEXT TIME: Friendly chats with Chosens.**


	4. Chats with Chosens

I'm basically farting chapters out of my butt now.

DON'T STOP ME I'M ON A ROLL HERE

And this chapter is actually longer than the others! YEE.

Since I was able to get some reviews before this chapter was posted, I'm gonna go ahead and answer those:

Mokamon

Nobody can blame laziness. Happens to all of us. XD

I kind of figured that she would have to be at least a little bit stunned, don't you think? You can't really just expect her to go "Welp, just fell through the sky, into a tree, landed on the Chosen, ran into three trees, two bushes, a pond, and fell off a cliff and into another tree CONVERSE WITH ALL THE PEOPLE". That would be kind of…weird.

Chang-Tong

It's true, she's not lucky. And if I were actually in that kind of situation, I would probably end up worse, as I have a tendency to run into or trip over everything.

And thank you for the advice! I'm still kind of a novice writer, so it's nice to get some tips on how to make things move smoother in my stories. :D

And sadly, Cassie doesn't really get much of a costume change…as I am completely uncreative when it comes to outfits. DX

Kenegi

I have a bad habit of missing a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes in my chapters, so I tend to have to go back and edit them after I post them. I'm thinking of finding myself a beta reader…

And from looking at the game, there were quite a number of trees around Colette's house. It actually took me a bit to notice them in my first play through of the game, because of the weird camera angle and my sucky TV. XD

**(5-26) = **Eeeeeeeedits. :P

**DISCLAIMER: Don't own Colette's pretty house.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Chats with Chosens**

Oh my god, this is so incredibly awkwaaaaard.

Note to self: next time you see Genis and Lloyd, _smack_ them for being nice assholes.

And yes, I just said they were still _nice_.

The reason why I'm mad at those two is because they left me with Colette until Raine got back to the village. Now, that would be okay if it was only _Colette_ I had to deal with, but NO, I also have to deal with the people inside of her _house_. One of which is none other than _Kratos, _who I've always found to be incredibly _scary_ for some reason.

You see why I have hate for those two?

The meet-up with Colette's family wasn't too bad, though. Colette just explained that I was a friend that they had met before going to the temple and that I had gotten myself hurt (since Lloyd didn't give her all the details, she couldn't really explain how), and that I was going to wait with her until Raine got there.

Her family seemed pretty concerned about my well being, which...made me feel really awkward. However, I was just trying my hardest not to cower behind Colette because of Kratos, as during the whole conversation he was giving me a suspicious look.

The mayor was there too, but I ignored him. Because he's a douche.

Phaidra and Frank decided to be even nicer to me and fix up the makeshift splint that I had, as it was starting to come loose. They also gave me some bandages for my lip and other cuts, so that was awesome.

"We'll let you know when Raine comes by, dear." Phaidra told me, all smiley and grandmotherly like. "You just rest until then."

"Thank you." I replied quickly, because I was feeling really uncomfortable getting all this attention from these people. They're just so nice and stuff and- oh for the love of god, Kratos, _stop staring at me! I'm not gonna randomly turn into some Cruxis person and eat everyone OKAY GOD._

Luckily, I didn't say that out loud. Otherwise he would probably have eaten _me_. Or something much worse.

Finally, I was able to get away from all the attention I was recieving when the small group had to go back to talking over plans for the journey. However, I couldn't really see anywhere to escape to that wasn't inside the house, so somehow, I ended up where I am now.

Hanging out in Colette's room.

It's...actually a pretty nice room, to tell the truth. It's nice and spacious, and the windows in the room are open, so there's a nice breeze coming into the room. There's a good sized table in the middle of the room, along with some dressers, some smaller tables, and a good sized bed in the far right corner. There's a bunch of potted plants to add to the cozy effect, and the whole place smell like a mixture of outside and a light perfume of sorts, most likely coming from the flowers in here. It's actually the kind of room I would like to have, besides all the light filtering in.

I don't really feel okay getting comfy in someone else's room though, so I just kind of...stand in the bottom corner of the room, next to a book shelf. There's a mirror in here, so while everyone's distracted downstairs, I decide to take off my hoodie to assess the whole extent of my injuries. It takes me a minute to slip it off due to my wrist, but I'm somehow able to manage , and I'm…not really pleased with what I see.

The first thing I think when I look at myself in the mirror is that '_I look like I've been beaten half to death_'. There's black bruising all over the backsides of my arms and around the sides of my neck, and I can see there's more to them, as they travel up into the short sleeves of my plain black T-shirt. The worst one I can see is the one around my wrist, as even with the bandages, it travels up to halfway up my forearm. Ouch.

It's even _worse_ when I lift up my shirt. Bruising all over my stomach and back, the biggest one being on my right side, under my ribs - a nice shade of black and blue. I notice that some of them are in sort of lines, and I'm guessing they're from all those branches whacking me as I fell through those trees

No wonder I feel like hell.

I guess the only _good_ thing I can make out of all these injuries is that my clothes are still in pretty good shape. My shirt barely has any damage to it, and besides some rips and the dirt, my hoodie still looks pretty okay. It can easily be fixed as soon as I get my hands on some thread. Same goes for my pants, but the thing those need the most is a good washing. They're absolutely _covered_ in dirt and grass stains, which you can see even on the black pants.

"Oh…"

I immediately pull down my shirt at the sudden voice (holy ow, my wrist), and when I look over, I see Colette by the top of the stairs, staring at me worriedly. I...guess the meeting was over, so she came to check up on me…nice of her. I feel kind of bad that she had to see all my bruises, though…

"Uh-sorry." I stammer, just a _tad_ embarrassed that she saw me with no shirt. I'm very self-conscious about undressing in front of people. "I was just-uh…well."

"Oh, no, it's fine!" She reassures me, coming off the staircase to join me. I pick my hoodie off the ground as she stops in front of me, and I see her notice the bruising on my arms. "Are you going to be okay?"

I wave at her with my right hand, lightly gripping the hoodie with my other. "Eh, I'll be fine. Just have to make sure not to...whack into anymore things."

"How did you get all of those injuries?" She asks me, a slight worried tone in her voice. I blink at that, and I start thinking about what's happened to me today.

I decide to leave off me falling from the sky, as that would be too confusing. "Well, let's see…I fell through a tree, landed on you-" I glance at her for a second, and then continue. "-ran face first into another tree, then two more...tripped over some bushes, fell into a pond, walked off a cliff, landed in another tree, and then fell out of _that _one..." I'm counting all this out on my fingers as I say them, ignoring the twinges of pain from my wrist. I finally stop, and look over at Colette's shocked face. "Um…let's just say I've had a bad day, okay?"

Colette still looks all worried, so I decide to change the topic, clearing my throat. "Soooo, Lloyd said your name was Colette, right?" I hold my hand out to her, and give her the best awkward smile I can muster. "I'm Cassie. Nice to meet you."

She pauses a second, before smiling at me, and takes my hand gingerly. "Nice to meet you too, Cassie!"

I nod at her, then drop my hand. "So…is it too much for me to ask what was going on down there? You guys seemed like you were in the middle of something when I came in."

Colette just keeps smiling. "Oh, we were just discussing some things. I'm going to be going on a journey tomorrow!"

"Oh, really?" As if I didn't already know this. However, since I'm not _supposed _to know, I make sure to ask anyway. "What kind of journey?"

I notice Colette's smile falter just a bit before she tells me. "The Tower of Salvation appeared today. Since I'm the Chosen, that means that I have to go on a journey to regenerate the world."

I try my hardest to look surprised. "You're the Chosen?" Pause. "Jeez, now I feel even _worse_ for landing on you earlier." I rub my cheek a bit. "Plus, I heard Genis say that it was your birthday, so…sssssorry."

"It's _okay_, really." she reassures me. "You should be more concerned about yourself!" She's looking all worrieded again. Silly concerned people.

"Honestly, I'm _fine_. Just a little banged up." I point to my bad wrist. "I'm just lucky I only got off with a broken wrist as my worst injury."

I don't know if you've noticed by now, but I'm one of those people that hate it when people worry about me. It comes with being all...anti-social, I guess.

Trying to change the subject again, I glance around at her room. "Y'know, you have a really nice room. It's so…bright and airy."

Colette smiles at the compliment. "Thanks!" She then moves over to the small table in the middle of the room, motioning at one of the chairs there. "You can sit down if you want."

I _would _object to this, but I don't want to be rude to her, so I go ahead and take a seat with my hoodie in my lap, mumbling a quick thanks. She takes the seat opposite of me, and since I hate sitting in silence, I bring up another topic.

"So, is your family always so...nice to people?" I point to the small bandage I have placed on my lip. "It was really cool of them to give me those bandages. They didn't even hesitate to help me."

"Oh yes!" There's that cheerful tone again. "We always try to help those in need. It'd be mean if we didn't."

"I guess so." I look down at the table. "Although, that other guy downstairs didn't seem as friendly..."

She blinks. "Oh, you mean Kratos?" When I nod, she smiles again. "He's okay! He was nice enough to help me out at the temple, so I'm sure he has a good heart."

Either that or he's just following orders. "Yeah, well, he kept giving me looks the whole time I was down there…I thought he was gonna _eat_ me, or something."

I look up when Colette giggles, raising an eyebrow. "...What?"

She stops giggling, looking at me again. "You're funny."

I blush at that, and look back down at the table. "Um…thanks, I guess."

"Pardon me for intruding."

I jump at the sudden voice, and I notice none other than the Purple Terror at the staircase. He spares me a quick look (eek), before turning at Colette. "Your teacher seems to have returned to the village. I would suggest you go find her."

"Oh! Thank you, Kratos." She stands, and turns to me. "Come on! I'll take you to the Professor."

"Uh- okay." I stand and grab my hoodie from my lap before following Colette to the stairs. Kratos decided to go ahead and leave after us, so I get a quick glance at him in the main room before heading out the door after the blonde Chosen.

Thankfully, we don't have to walk far to find the Professor. After only a few minutes of walking, we spot her standing by the schoolhouse. And she's not alone, as Genis is standing beside her. Hm, guess him and Lloyd got done at the ranch already…I hadn't even realized how much time had passed since I got left at Colette's house. The sun's already beginning to set…

Oops, I zoned out. I look ahead of me again, and I see that Colette's joined the Professor, and both she and Genis are talking to her about something. I'm guessing it's me, as Genis is gesturing over to me as he talks. Colette stops speaking for a second to motion to me, and I walk forward to join them.

The first thing Raine does is look me over with her eyes (eek again), and I notice she lingers on the bruises on my arms and my wrist.

"I've heard from these two that you're in bad condition." she finally says, looking me in the eye. "And just from looking at you…well, I'd have to agree, for the most part."

"Yeah, I've been having a pretty bad day so far." I shrug, which I regret a second later, wincing as I feel a bruise twinge painfully. "Ow."

I hear Raine heave a quick sigh. "Well, let's take a look at the damage."

The four of us walk inside the schoolhouse, where there's a little more privacy, and I'm not surprised that it's a bit bigger than it appears in the game. The layout's still the same, though.

Anyways, it only takes Raine a few minutes of looking at my injuries to say that yes, I _am _in pretty bad condition (like I didn't know that already) and informs me that I also have some bruised ribs and a slight concussion.

Awesome. Not even a _day_ here and I already have more injuries than I've _ever_ had before.

Luckily, it isn't so bad that Raine can't heal me, so I'm left to just sit in a chair while she heals me. I get my first feel of healing magic then, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how efficient it is. Most of my bruising is taken care of pretty quickly, though there's a...weird tingling as they're being healed, so it's a little uncomfortable.

The last thing she heals is my wrist, but since it's a more serious injury, it takes a bit longer. Afterwards, it feels strangely itchy, but I can't complain. I'm just glad it's not broken.

"That should do it." she tells me afterwards, as I flex my newly repaired wrist. "Is there anywhere else you're injured?"

"Not that I know if." I clench my hand, then release it, looking up at her. "Thanks a lot!"

"I'm quite curious about how you obtained most of those injuries, though." She gives me a calculating look. "Genis informed me of your run-in with them earlier, but the rest…did you run into monsters, by any chance?"

"Mmnope." I reply, dropping my hand to my lap. "I just whacked into a bunch of stuff. It's what happens when you're a klutz. Plus, I...lost my glasses for a bit while I was walking around, so I wasn't really able to pay attention to where I was going most of the time."

She 'hm's in reply, but she's still giving me that weird look…I guess I should expect that, though. Raine was never one to trust easily in the game. Still, I wish she would stop looking at me like I'm suddenly gonna kill someone.

After a few more seconds of staring, she finally sighs. "Well, you'll be fine. Just don't strain yourself too much." I nod in response, and she turns to Colette. "Since we're done here, I think it would be best for you to visit Lloyd one last time before we leave tomorrow."

"Oh, right!" the blonde Chosen exclaims. She nods, then to my surprise, looks over to me. "Do you want to come with us, Cassie?"

I blink at the sudden request. I know that she's trying to be nice and all, but…should I? I mean, it's kind of a personal thing between these guys. Y'know, with the whole 'goodbye' crap going on over there. Also, Lloyd's supposed to find out the truth about his mom's death…so there's that. I'd probably just feel really awkward being there.

Then again, I'd also feel awkward being here by myself…ah, screw it. Lets go for 'being awkward around people I know'.

I finally shrug. "If you want me to. Lead the way."

* * *

"_Man_, this forest is big."

"Well, yeah. That's why it's called a _forest_."

"Yeah, but still…they could have at least made a clearer path, or something."

"Hey, it's your fault for walking around without shoes."

I stick my tongue out at Genis, but otherwise keep my mouth shut, shoving my cold hands into my hoodie pockets. If you didn't already get the hint from our conversation, we're currently walking through the forest leading to Lloyd's house. We haven't run into too much trouble, except for a few monsters every once in a while. However, since Kratos decided to join us before we left the village, those were easily taken care of.

Aside from that, the only trouble I've encountered since is the fact that...Iiiiii'm still barefoot out here. The path leading to Lloyd's house isn't too clear of debris, so I've managed to step on multiple things…the worst being the remains of a potion bottle in the middle of the dang road.

Long story short, glass shard went into my foot, and I hopped around screaming curses for about two minutes before Raine was able to pull it out and heal me.

Sooooo _that_ was nice.

Another thing that's been bothering me is that it's turned dark since we left. The sun went down fully about a half hour ago, so we've been walking around in semi-darkness. Now, even though I found my glasses earlier, there are still points when I have terrible eyesight. One of those points is when it's dark out. Hence the whole '_me stepping on everything_' problem.

I'm tired of this place already, and it hasn't even been a whole day. I think that's a record.

Back to the present, we're walking around in relative silence after my small attempt to make conversation with these people. However, it isn't completely silent. As night fell, the forest around us decided to come to life, so we're surrounded by the quiet noise of cicadas, crickets, and the occasional monster growl.

The only thing I don't mind about the noise is the cicadas. I've heard from some people that they're annoyed by the sounds of cicadas around them in the summer. However, compared to where I live, the noise these ones are making don't even come close. We have so many cicadas in Missouri, during the evenings outside, you can't even hear yourself _think_. It's maddening.

I feel relief course through me when I see light up ahead. As we get closer, I see that the lights coming from a medium-sized house, nestled in a clear part of the forest. I am actually really glad to see Lloyd's house. My feet are starting to go numb from walking in the dirt and its 'surprises'.

"Is that it up there?" I say, pointing to the house in front of us. Stupid question, when you think about it, but I have a habit of saying stupid things at random.

"Yep." Colette tells me, still cheerful. She's walking ahead of me, so I see her step over some well-placed logs over a creek of sorts. Right, I forgot that was there. Everyone else follows her lead, so I guess it's pretty stable.

I still freak out a bit as I cross over it. Half of it from fear of falling, and the other half from the bark scraping my feet.

When I finally get to the other side, I see that everyone's staring at the house. I wonder why for a split second, before I hear a crashing noise from inside the house, followed by some shouting I can't make out. A beat later, the door bursts open, and a very pissed looking Lloyd comes running out the door, slamming it behind him.

It only takes a few seconds for Lloyd to spot us, and the angry look drops from his face. "Oh…let me guess…you heard that just now?"

Genis speaks first. "I'm sorry…because of me you…" Ah, he's talking about the ranch, isn't he? Genis doesn't get to finish that sentence though, as Lloyd shakes his head.

"It's okay, it's not your fault." He looks down, and there's silence for a little while.

It's Raine who breaks it, stepping forward slightly. "…Lloyd, you should speak to Colette. We'll wait here."

Lloyd doesn't really look up when he responds. "…Okay."

"Let's go up to the terrace, okay?" Colette speaks up, clasping her hands in front of her.

Lloyd pauses before answering. "Just a minute, all right?"

She nods in reply. "Okay. I'll be waiting on the bench."

Everyone scatters after that, going off to do their own thing. After a moment, I decide to do just the same. I could use a little rest after all that walking. I end up walking with Colette toward the bench she was talking about earlier. However, while she actually sits on the bench, I decide to sit on a flat area of rock next to the creek, just opposite of what I recognize as Noise's pen. As I settle in my little spot, I put my feet in the water, which is surprisingly warm in comparison to the outside air.

As I splash my feet around in the running water, I glance around to see what everyone else is doing. Right now, Lloyd is talking to Genis about something, but I can't remember what it's supposed to be in the game. From where I'm sitting, I can't see where Kratos is, but I remember that he's supposed to be standing in front of Anna's grave. Raine is standing by the makeshift bridge, doing…something. I can't really see her from here, since it's dark where she is.

I stiffen when I suddenly feel something sniffing my hair.

Ever so slightly, I turn my head to look behind me, and I see none other than Noishe, who…wants to sniff my hair, for some reason? He's just as big as he is in the game, about the size of a medium sized horse, so I'm not really in a hurry to move…at all.

"Psst. Colette." I whisper, just loud enough so she can hear me, I slightly look in her direction, and I see her looking at me in surprise. "What's this thing doing?"

"Noishe!" I'm saved from getting a possible hair chewing by Lloyd, who runs over to the giant dog. "What are you doing?" He looks down at me. "Uh, sorry. He doesn't usually do stuff like this."

I just nod slightly, still waiting for something to happen. After a few more sniffs from the giant dog, I feel him tap my head twice with his chin, and then he just…walks off. I turn to look, and I see him go back into his pen, like nothing happened.

"…O-kaaaaay…" I say slowly, looking up at the brunette standing next to me. "What was that about?"

He just stares at his giant dog. "…I have no idea." He sighs, and surprises me by plopping down next to me. "I will never understand him."

I just shrug. "Eh, I just probably smelled interesting." He probably smelled my dogs on me, is all, but I don't mention that.

A pause, then Lloyd looks over to me. "So…why'd you come out here with everyone? It kind of surprised me, seeing you here."

Love ya too, Lloyd. "Colette invited me to come along." I pull my feet out of the creek, crossing them under my legs (i just got my pants wet god damn it). "Besides, I...didn't really feel comfortable staying in the village by myself. I'd probably just be stared at again."

Lloyd nods like he knows what I'm talking about. "So, how are you? Did the Professor fix your wrist?"

"Yup." I show him, flexing my hand around. "She also healed all my other injuries, too. So I feel good as new!" I drop my hand down. "She's a pretty good healer, just like you said."

"Yeah, she is."

"…Hey, listen." I say suddenly, turning to face him. "Thanks for...y'know, helping me out. If you and Genis hadn't come along, I'd probably still be hanging in that tree."

Lloyd grins at me. "No problem!" He holds up a hand then, making a sort of peace sign. "Dwarven Vow #2: Never abandon someone in need. It was the least I could do."

Great, he brought up a Dwarven Vow. "Uh…okay?"

He drops his hand, looking to the creek. "…So, now what are you gonna do?"

I sigh. "No idea. I don't really have that many options, to tell the truth."

"Do you have a place to stay tonight?"

That question gets to me. Oh holy crap…I never even though of that 'til now. "…No, I don't. I, uh…hadn't really thought about it." I sigh, placing my head in my hands. "I guess I'm sleeping in a tree or something." Although, at this point, I'd much rather sleep in the dirt than in a tree. They've given me enough problems today.

I look at Lloyd through my fingers, and I see he's looking down, brow furrowed. Guess he's thinking about something.

I sit up, heaving another sigh. "Well, not much I can do about it, I suppose. My fault for not planning ahead."

"Well…" Lloyd speaks up suddenly, looking at me. "If you want, you could stay here."

…Wait, what?

I make absolutely no effort to hide my surprised expression from Lloyd. That was…a pretty unexpected thing for him to say. "Uh…really?"

"Yeah, sure." Lloyd says, smiling at me. "We've got some room."

"But-um…I don't want to be rude or anything." I tell him, slightly apprehensive. "I think I've given you guys enough trouble already."

"It's fine, really." he replies. "I mean, like you said, you don't have anywhere else to go, right?"

That is true…but still. Staying at Lloyd's house? That would mean being around when the Desians attack the village…and I don't want to get wrapped up in that. Plus, they have to fight Marble…

Then again, I _really _don't want to have to sleep outside…

Ugh. I've had to make too many decisions today.

I think for a few more seconds, then half-shrug. "If you're sure…I don't want to impose or anything."

Lloyd grins at my response. "Hey, don't worry about it!" He stands up then, still looking at me. "Just wait here while I talk to Colette, okay?"

I nod. "Mmkay..."

I don't watch him walk of, instead opting to look back at the creek. I don't look up when him and Colette walk behind me either, and I wait until I hear a door close before looking back. All I get from that is a small staring contest with Noishe, so I turn back to the creek. After a few seconds, I stick my feet back in, thinking about my recent conversation.

Staying at Lloyd's house…this should be fun.

Okay, this house is actually pretty damn cozy.

I didn't have to wait too long for Lloyd to finish talking to Colette, as it only took a few minutes, or so. When the group left, as promised, the brunette came and got me, and showed me inside. The main level looked just about the same as it did in the game, except for a slight change in size and layout. And the whole place was still covered in plants, just like the game.

There was a little bit of awkwardness when Lloyd explained my situation to Dirk, due to their fight earlier. However, Dirk didn't mind me staying there, and told me that I was welcome for the night. He's a nice guy, and despite being a dwarf, he isn't all that short…only about five feet. But he's still all muscular and bearded, so that height thing still threw me off a bit.

I also figured out there was more to the upstairs than just Lloyd's room. There was actually a few more rooms up there, one of them being Dirk's. One such room turned out to be an extra bedroom, and when I asked, I figured out it was there for when one of Dirk's clients came to place an order. Apparently, some of them had to stay until it was done, as some lived pretty far away. Clever thinking, really.

The room was nice, to tell the truth. A bit small, with a window on the wall opposite of the door. The bed was in the far left corner of the room, with a small nightstand and lamp next to it. A simple rug covered the floor, and just like every other place in the house, the wooden walls were covered in plants and moss. All in all, there was a very warm feel to the place. I felt right at home.

Afterwards, I was left to my own devices, which I was thankful for. I had had a pretty long day, and I was just ready to lie down and sleep.

Before I clocked out, however, I decided to open the window a bit so I could hear the cicadas. Unfortunately for me, I'm one of those people who can't sleep in silence. Because of this, I always have some white noise going when I sleep, in the form of a small fan in my room. However, since I'm _obviously_ not at home, I can't use that. So I decided to opt with the cicadas.

Since I don't really have any P.J's to sleep in, I just take off my dirty hoodie before plopping down into the small bed, wrapping the covers over me.

It doesn't take me long to fall into a deep sleep.

* * *

A whole bunch of this chapter was awkward to write, as most of it I came up with myself.

I really do like both Lloyd and Colette's houses in the game. They're both just so nice and pretty, I can't help but like them. :D

And yes, I did make Lloyd use a Dwarven vow. I just couldn't help myself. XD

May have the next chapter out soon, but not in the next day or so. Still, keep an eye out!

**NEXT TIME: Conversations with a dwarf, and the destruction of Iselia.**


	5. Destruction of Iselia

Lots of needless talking in this chapter. And it's not as long as I would want it to be. :|

Still, it's a chapter, soooo…meh.

Kenegi

I may possibly have a moment where she get's chased around by tree monsters. JUST because you said that. XD

Chang-Tong

Yes, they possibly could. Or she could still be socially awkward in the end. Who knows? XD

And yes, it's hard to see possibly harmful objects when everything is a giant blob in your eyes. I would know, as I have had to experience it. You would not believe the number of times I have whacked into doorframes and doors in the middle of the night. :\

And I just like all the Dwarven Vows that make me laugh. XD

Tri-Emperor of The Twilight

I'm pretty sure you could find something if you looked really hard. I'm not the best writer. But thanks for the compliment! :D

**(5-27)** = Some minor edits to this chapter.

**DISCLAIMER: Don't own any Tales stuff.**

**Chapter 5: Destruction of Iselia**

* * *

As I wake up, the first thing I think is that it was all part of some weird dream.

However, as I lay in the bed thinking that, a few things come to my attention that make me realize that can't be possible. Number one: I don't hear my fan going. Number two: There's sunlight coming in, which shouldn't be possible, as the windows in my room are covered with blackout curtains. And Number THREE: …I hear birds in here.

Sure enough, when I open my eyes, even with my bad vision, I can see that I'm still in the guest room of Lloyd's house. And sure enough, for some strange reason, there are some small birds hopping around on the floor. It takes me a moment to figure out how they got in, but then I remember I left the window open last night. Silly me.

The birds fly back out the window when I sit up in the bed, placing my head in my hands. I do this both to rouse myself from sleep, as well as try and calm the returning feeling of dread surging through me, from the knowledge that it wasn't a dream.

After both of those issues are taken care of (somewhat), I begrudgingly pull myself away from the warm covers of the bed, plant my feet on the floor (cooold!), and stand up, stretching. I take a minute to straighten out my clothes, which are rumpled up from me sleeping in them, and grab my glasses off the small nightstand before walking over to the window to close it, grabbing my hoodie on the way there.

When I happen to look out the window before I close it, I'm surprised to see that it's actually pretty early in the morning. The sky is a sort of pinkish blue, and the sun isn't even up yet…so I'm gonna guess it's somewhere around six a.m. or so. Surprising to me, as I usually wake up a little before noon on normal days….

Then again, yesterday and today aren't exactly _normal_ days for me.

Anyways, after closing the window, I decide to see if I can find a bathroom or something...I don't think I need to explain why.

Before I go barging into the hall, however, I decide to poke my head out first, to see if anyone's awake. When I'm satisfied that nobody's there, I tiptoe out of my room, closing the door with a small _click_.

I don't exactly remember if Lloyd is asleep at this point…I think he stays up all night finishing Colette's necklace. Still, I try to be cautious as I walk around.

Turns out, I don't have to look too long to find a restroom, as there's one right next to what I remember to be Dirk's room. When I look inside, I'm pleasantly surprised to find a real, albeit old-fashioned toilet, as well as a sink and what I _assume_ is a shower of sorts.

I thank whatever's up there that even though Sylvarant isn't as advanced as Tethe'alla, they still have indoor plumbing.

I go ahead and take care of my business while I'm in there (not going into detail), as well as use the sink to wash off my face and whatever muck is still caked onto my glasses. I don't bother going near the shower, even though I could _really_ use one, because…that would probably be really awkward.

After I get all freshened up, I decide to go downstairs, to see if I could do anything with my mess of a hoodie. I would really like to wash this thing before having to go through the events of today…as well as fix all the little tears. Same could go for my pants, but...I'm not sure how that would work out.

I tiptoe my way back into the hallway, and make an immediate beeline for the stairs, being extremely careful to not make a sound on the wooden floors. I live in a house with wooden floors, so I know how creaky they are.

However, when I make it down the stairs, I see that I'm not the only one who's awake.

It only takes a few seconds for Dirk to turn away from his equipment and spot me frozen on the bottom step. "Oh. Hello there."

I blink, still frozen. "Um…hi. Sorry to, uh…interrupt."

He just waves at me. "It's alright, lass. I was just finishin' up." He looks at me past his bushy eyebrows. "Did yeh need something?

Scottish accent is Scottish. "Uh-no, not really." I reply, waving my hands in front of me. I still have my hoodie in hand, so it's kind of awkward looking. "I just wanted to, um-"

_Grrrrwlllll…_

There's a pause at the sudden noise, and it takes me a second to realize that it was my stomach. Up until that happened, I didn't even realized how hungry I was. I hadn't really eaten anything yesterday, had I? I mean, I had that brownie thing before I ended up here, but that was about all I ate yesterday…I don't normally eat breakfast, and I skipped lunch, too…

I flush, and Dirk just raises an eyebrow. "...You sure yeh don't need anythin'?"

I just look down. "Uhhh…"

_Grrrrrrrwlllllll…_

I glare down at my stomach, and I hear Dirk sigh. "Wait here a minute."

He walks to the side, and I see him disappear into a doorway by the staircase…which I didn't notice, for some reason. After a few seconds, I go the rest of the way down the stairs, staring at the doorway. I hear noises in there, but they're too quiet for me to make out what exactly they are.

Feeling a bit awkward, I decide to sit at the table to the left of the staircase, which is on a little platform. If you don't remember, most of the floor of the downstairs is nothing but very compacted dirt, most likely caused from people constantly walking on it over the years.

After a few minutes of sitting, awkwardly playing around with my hoodie, I'm startled when a plate suddenly appears in my line of sight. When I look, I see it's Dirk again.

"Here you are."

I blink, looking down at the plate he's offering…which I now realize has food on it, in the form of some buttered toast and an orange.

He got me food? How…nice.

"Um…thanks." I say, taking the plate from him gingerly. He waves a hand in reply, in a sort of 'no problem' way.

"Don' mention it. I can't have you passin' out on my floor, can I?" Through his beard, I see him smile a bit. Then, he goes back over to his forgotten equipment, picking up something. I watch him work for a few moments, before turning back to the food in front of me, picking up the orange. As I begin to peel it with my thumb, Dirk speaks again.

"So. Just how did you meet up with my son, eh?" he asks, turning away from his work for a minute to look at me. "I don' think I've seen yeh around the village."

I give him a glance, before turning back to my orange. "It's, uh…kind of a long story." I grimace. "A long, pain filled story. Most of the pain directed at me."

I see Dirk looking at me curiously, so I quickly give him a condensed version of what happened yesterday. I leave out the part of me falling from the sky, obviously, but I tell him about how I fell out of a tree and landed on Colette on their way to the temple. I also tell him about how Lloyd helped me out of the other tree, and how him and Genis took me to Iselia to get me some help. I try to keep it as short as possible, as I'm not good at carrying on long conversations with people I've just met.

"…And that's basically it." I finally finish, and I also finish peeling my orange. I put the ruined orange skin on my plate, before slowly picking out one of the orange slices. "I wanted to thank him for helping me out, so that's why I came over here last night. I didn't really expect to stay the night here, though." I give him an awkward look. "By the way...sorry about that. I didn't mean to put you two on the spot like that."

"Ah, don' worry about it." He says, looking at what he's been working on the past few minutes of me talking. I realize it's probably the Key Crest that's supposed to be for Marble…which will end up being Genis's. "After all, Lloyd was the one who offered."

"Yeah, I guess…still though." Stopping for a minute, I pop an orange slice into my mouth. Yummmm, orange. These things are my favorite fruits…ever. I swallow after a few seconds, working on the next slice.

The room falls into relative silence after that, aside from the sounds of Dirk working. I finish up my breakfast pretty quickly, seeing as it's quite small. Even so, it fills me up pretty well, so I can't complain. To make sure I don't bother Dirk again, I go to put the plate up myself, and I see that the room he got it from, obviously, is a kitchen. It's pretty small, but it must work okay for those two. I also notice that not everything here is modern, as they have an icebox instead of a fridge. I go ahead and wash the plate, and after a few seconds of searching, put it in it's right cupboard.

When I walk back out, I see that Dirk's finished his work, and is now doing something at the table I was just sitting at. I go ahead and assume that he's putting together the thing's that Lloyd's gonna take with him for the journey…oh, how Dirk knows his son.

I go to pick up my hoodie, which I left on the ground near the table, when I remember what I actually came down here for. "Uh, quick question."

Dirk grunts, so I guess that means he's listening. Turning to him, I hold up my soiled hoodie.

"Do you guys have anyplace I could wash this?" I ask, holding the thing by the shoulders. "It got pretty dirty yesterday, and um…well."

"Yeh can wash it off in the creek out front." he replies, not looking up from what he's doing. He puts a rolled up piece of paper in the bag he's working with, which I'm guessing was the map of Sylvarant.

I say a quick thank you, then head out the front door.

* * *

I hate sewing.

I was able to get my hoodie pretty clean from dunking it in the stream out front. The dirt came out pretty quickly, despite it being all over the effen' thing. And while I was out there, I decided to dunk my head in the water too, in an effort to get the dirt out of my hair as well. I'm not sure how well that worked, though.

After that, I hung it over the railing of Noishe's pen to dry - away from the big dog, of course. I didn't want to get his bed all wet…even though it was really just a bunch of straw. I sat there with it, so that my hair would dry as the sun came up. Surprisingly, Noishe left me alone the whole time, aside from giving me a 'whine' when I decided to say hello. Other than that, I was pretty much left sitting there for about an hour and a half.

It was really boring.

When I was satisfied that both my hair and my hoodie were dry enough, I decided to go inside and ask Dirk if he had a sewing kit, so I could repair the tears in the thing. He did, just so you know, so I was once again left at the little table while Dirk went off to do something else outside.

It's been about forty-five minutes since I started working on this thing, and I'm not really enjoying it. I can actually sew pretty well, because I make plushies in my spare time, but I don't do very well when I'm fixing up clothes. I'm good at fixing the tear, not making it look nice and pretty. But since this was one of my favorite hoodies (and the only one with me at the moment), I didn't want it to look all sloppy when I fixed it. Which meant me sitting there slowly threading a needle through each tear so it would look okay when I was finally done.

I've pricked myself about twenty times, already.

"Ow!"

…Make that twenty-one.

I huff at the injury I just caused myself, going back to fixing the tear I'm working on. Luckily, it's the last one, but it's also the biggest one, so I'm taking a bit more precaution in trying to repair it. I've already got it about halfway sewed up, so I just need to be careful with what I'm doing now.

I pause for a second when I hear footsteps upstairs, heading towards the staircase. Guess that means Lloyd's up and moving. I go back to sewing, and only a few seconds later, Lloyd appears down the staircase.

"Hey Lloyd." I say to him, not looking up from my work. "Morning."

Even though I'm not looking at him, I can tell he's surprised to see me. "Oh, hey Cassie." Pause. "…What are you doing?"

"Sewing." I reply, closing up the last of the tear. "Just a little more…aaaaaand done!" I tie off the thread and cut it with teeth, then hold it up to inspect my work. "Hm…not bad." Honestly, it really doesn't look bad, for something I did. And I'm really glad I decided to go with a dark thread, because you can't really see it on the black hoodie.

"…Okay then." Lloyd replies, shrugging a bit. "Hey, have you seen my dad?"

"He went outside a little while ago." I say, putting the sewing supplies back into the little box Dirk gave me. "I'm pretty sure he's still out there."

"Thanks." And then he's out the door before I even have time to register it. I guess he's in a hurry.

I roll my eyes, then pick up the little sewing box to put it back where it came from. However, since I don't know where Dirk usually keeps it, I decide to just put it with his equipment in the corner, placing it on a metal anvil next to a small furnace. Then I go back to the table to pick up my hoodie, putting it on.

Yay for warm hoodies!

As I begin to zip up the garment, I startle when I hear a consistent _thud_ noise coming from outside. I turn towards the window, to see the last bit of a large, green tipped tail fly past. I'm left to wonder what the heck Noise is doing, when I see a certain half-elf come into view from the forest, heading towards where I remember Anna's grave to be.

I feel my stomach sink.

Quickly, I slip on the rest of my hoodie, jumping of the wooden platform towards the door. I somehow manage to trip on the way there, but I right myself pretty quickly, and throw open the door, racing outside. I get to the corner of the house, but stop when I begin to hear their conversation.

"…stupid or something? Colette and the others left a long time ago!"

"Wha…?"

"I came looking for you because _you_ never showed up!"

"You've gotta be kidding me!"

I hear Dirk break in. "Lloyd! Go to the village, now!"

"Yeah! Come on, come on!" I hear footsteps after that, and I step backward a bit when I see Genis race past. He's quickly followed by Lloyd and Noishe, and I'm left standing there in their dust before I remember to _go after them_.

"Guys, wait!" I call out beginning to race after them. I stop suddenly, turning towards Dirk. "Uh, bye Dirk! Thanks for everything!"

He waves at me. "Good luck! Now go!"

I nod, then turn back around, racing after the two boys, all the while filled with a sense of nervousness and dread.

* * *

_"Colette said she was leaving at noon! So why did she…?"_

_"She was acting overly cheerful before she left, telling everyone, "I'll be fine," and "I'll do my best."_

_"I bet…she's hiding something. She always acts like that when she's worried or hiding something."_

_"Maybe so…"_

_"I bet Phaidra probably knows something."_

* * *

"Stupid…giant…_forest_."

Sooooo, I ended up loosing track of Lloyd and Genis about...ten minutes after I started running after them. One reason is because of the giant forest with all the crap strewn around (ow feet), which severely slowed me down. But the other reason is that I pretty much suck at running. Little note here: I absolutely _hate_ having to exercise, mainly because I suck at it. When it comes down to it, I usually just stick to walking around the neighborhood, but that doesn't really help.

Because of that, I was just about _dying_ by the time I got out of that fucking forest.

Gasping and stumbling, I finally reach the entrance to the village. I can see that it isn't on fire yet, so I guess the Desians haven't gotten here yet. Lucky me. I finally stop at the wooden gate at the entrance, placing my hands on my knees. I startle the two guards at the gates while I'm at it.

"Uh…are you okay, kid?" one of them says, looking down at me.

"Fine…" I gasp at him, trying to catch my breath. "_Guh_...Ha…have you seen…Lloyd and Genis…by any chance?"

"Uh…yeah." the other one says, and I see him point in a random direction. "They just came through here a few minutes ago. They should be over by Phaidra's house."

"Thanks…" I wheeze, finally catching my breath (sort of), then once again start running, heading towards the direction of the house.

However, I'm only able to run for a few minutes before I'm stopped by the first explosion.

Even with no breath, I still manage to shriek, falling to the ground at the sudden blast from behind. The explosion is followed by screaming from its direction, and when I look behind me, I see a massive fireball at the entrance of the village, tinting the sky a reddish color.

"Shit…" I murmur, feeling panic rise in my throat. The villagers that are in the area I'm in look on in horror at the fire. And as we watch, it grows in size spreading through the village…and towards were we are.

I doesn't take me a second thought to scramble to my feet and begin sprint towards Colette's house. The villagers, I notice, do the same, and when I turn back, I see why.

As we run, Desians come into view.

_Shit_, here we go.

I pick up the pace, my tiredness suddenly forgotten, and I pass house after house, legs burning and bare feet stinging from each impact on the hard, rocky ground. As I run by, I see glimpses of the villagers around, all running away from the sudden threat. I also notice that the Desians are suddenly _everywhere_, destroying everything they can get their hands on.

I turn a random corner, hoping desperately to find myself at my destination. Instead, to my horror, I find myself staring at a group of three Desians, who spot me as I skid to a halt.

"Hey, there's one." one says, turning towards me. Even though the helmets cover most of their faces, I can see this one has a sinister smile. "I call this one. It's about time I was able to kill one of these inferior beings."

He pulls something from his belt, and to my ever increasing horror, it's a weapon I know too dearly. I didn't even think they would exist here, but to my dismay, I'm proven wrong once again.

The weapon he pulls out, even with its weird appearance, is what I know as a gun.

And its now pointed directly at me.

…_Fuck_.

* * *

OH LOOK CLIFFHANGER AREN'T I HORRIBLE

Looks like our girl has gotten herself in quite a situation, huh? Will she get out alive? WHO KNOWS?

You would not believe how many times I had to listen to Dirk talking to get his accent right. I've never wrote an accent before, so it was really really hard. DX

Expect the next chapter to be out…possibly tomorrow. Maybe Tuesday morning. Who knows?

Also SPRING BREAK THIS WEEK so prepare for possible chapter spam from Wednesday to Sunday, as that's the days I have off. :D

NEXT TIME: Fight for my life.


	6. Banishment

It's friggin' 11 o'clock right now.

I'm tired.

Little bit later then when I wanted to post this up, but I hope you guys don't mind. :D

Mokamon:

This story has been up now for TWO years. I just never bothered to actually work on it until now. XD

And thanks for all the compliments! Really made me happy to hear someone likes my fic so much. Also that little conversation you put between Lloyd and Cassie…that made me laugh, as that's probably something I would actually do. XD

Chang-Tong:

No matter _how_ amazing I get, I will never cease having problems with grammer. It's like…the only problem I have with writing and English. DX

At least I have an awesome writer to spot all those. Although I should probably just get myself a beta reader…

I'm Sexy:

Okay, first off, your username made me laugh hysterically when I first saw it. XD

Second…that is very weird. …Random coincidence? K

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own, nor do I wish to own, the mayor of Iselia's douch-y face.**

* * *

**Chapter 6: Banishment**

It's amazing what goes through your mind when you're staring death in the face.

The fear coursing through me has frozen me solid, and all I can do is stare at the pistol in the Desian's hand as he gets closer and closer to me, all the while wearing a sinister sneer on his face.

Finally, when he's only a few feet away from me, I stumble backwards in an attempt to get away. However, all I manage to accomplish is falling flat on my butt. I hear the Desian laugh at me, and the next thing I know, the muzzle of the gun is right in my face.

"Say good-bye, inferior being."

I have to do something. _Now._

As quickly as I can manage, I blindly search the ground with one hand, trying to find something, _anything_, to stop this person from killing me. As I do this, I see him begin to pull on the trigger, slowly, almost as if he's taunting me.

My hand meets something hard.

Adrenaline coursing through me, I latch onto the object, and swing it around to hit the Desian before he can pull the trigger.

Turns out the object was a wooden board, and it hits his arm full force, swinging it out of my face just as he fires.

_BANG_.

The shot goes wide, and I hear it bounce off some object nearby. Before he can recover from my sudden attack, I take the board and bring it down on his head, and it hits home with a loud _clang_. He falls to the ground, dropping the pistol.

"Hey!"

Looks like the other two Desians were watching the whole time, and they're now running towards me with weapons in hand. One has a whip, while the other had a crossbow of sorts.

Great.

Not even really thinking about it, I grab the fallen pistol from the ground, dropping the board, and begin sprinting in the other direction. I don't know where I'm running, all I know is that its _away from here_.

I shriek and stumble a bit when an arrow plants itself in the ground just _inches_ away from my right foot. I right myself quickly, picking up the pace in an effort to get away from my attackers. My hearts pumping faster than I've ever heard it, my feet are blazing in pain from running on the bare ground, and everything around me is drowned out by an intense roaring in my ears.

I don't think I've ever been this frightened.

Dodging yet another arrow aimed at me, I skid around another corner, possibly tearing some skin off of my feet in the process. I don't care though, and continue running as fast as possible. Then, ahead of me, I see something that just makes me want to sob in relief.

Colette's house. And Lloyd and Genis are running outside.

"_GUYS!_" I shriek, gaining their attention just as my two chasers round the corner. The sight of the two Desians must have gotten their attention pretty quickly, as Lloyd draws his swords as Genis pulls out his kendama.

Just as I get a few feet away from them, Lloyd sprints forward, running past me to head off my two assailants. I run past Genis as he begins a spell, racing up the steps of Colette's house and dropping behind the fence to the right. I take a minute to catch my breath, clutching my newly acquired weapon, then turn towards the fence to watch the battle.

Since Lloyd still has wooden swords, he can't really do much damage to the two Desians. However, he's still able to give them quite a beat down, knocking one of them unconscious in a matter of minutes. Genis takes care of the other one, knocking him off his feet with Stone Blast. He goes flying a few feet in the air, before slamming into a house on the other side of the road, slumping down the side.

It only takes a few moments for the two boys to regain their wits, and Lloyd runs over to me, worry etched in his face.

"Are you okay?" he asks me, dropping down next to me. Since I don't think I can respond at the moment, I simply nod, wiping my sweaty face with my sleeve. He hands me an Apple Gel, which I take immediately, gulping it down. The stinging in my feet lessens, and I see scrapes and cuts on the soles of my feet disappear in a matter of minutes.

Genis joins us, standing behind the brunette swordsman. "What's going on? Why are there Desians here?"

I gulp, finally regaining my voice. "They…they're attacking the village. They came through a few minutes after I did…"

"What?" Lloyd, looking shocked. He looks at Genis then, and I see some sort of unspoken communication through them. I take a deep breath, then speak up.

"W-we can't stay here." I tell them, gaining their attention. "The villager…they need help."

"Oh, right!" Lloyd stands up, extending a hand out towards me. I take it, and I'm pulled to my feet. "C'mon, let's go help."

I nod, and I follow as they begin to run off. However, I stop after a moment, staring at one of the fallen Desians. This is the one who had the crossbow…his outfit looks different than the other two. More formal looking. Maybe he has some stuff I could use…I mean, it's not like he'll be needing it anytime soon.

After a few seconds of debating, I steel myself, then walk over to him, crouching down.

Lloyd stops, noticing what I'm doing. "Cassie, we don't have time for this! We need to-"

"I know, I know!" I shout back, looking over my shoulder at them. "Just…you two go on ahead. Help out the villagers."

"What about you?" Genis this time, staring at me.

"I'll be fine. I'll try and see what I can do on this side of the village." I show them my newly acquired pistol. "I have a weapon now, so I should be able to defend myself."

They're silent for a bit, and they look at each other for a second. Finally, Lloyd turns to me. "Okay. Try and be careful."

I nod, feeling very queasy at the thought of being alone. "You too."

He nods back, and draws his swords again before running off, Genis at his heels.

After a few moments, I turn back to the fallen Desian, and begin to search him. He's got a few packs on his belt, and when I look into a few, I see that they have some supplies that I could really use if I'm going to run headlong into a battle. Apple Gels, Orange Gels, Magic Lens, and a few bottles of what I think are Panacea Bottles…the Orange Gels aren't really of use to me, as I don't know any techs, but the other stuff I could really use.

After realizing that I have nothing to carry the stuff with besides my pockets, I decide to just take the whole damn belt. There's a little bit of awkwardness when I'm pulling it off him (I'm sure you can imagine why), but I don't really care right now. I can hear those explosions getting closer. Finally, I manage to get all of the belt off, along with the pouches of supplies, and I thread them into my belt loops before standing.

Okay…weapon? Check. Supplies? Check? Sanity? …I think that's debatable in what I'm going to do next. However, I can't back out of it now, so I guess it's all or nothing.

Steeling myself, and wondering why I'm insane enough to do this, I run towards the fires burning the village.

* * *

"_Damn Desian bastards!"_

"_Why do they do such horrible things?"_

"_Right now, we've got to get everyone to safety, and then drive those guys away!"_

"_Yeah…I hope Cassie's okay. She was almost killed by those ones chasing her!"_

"_Well, we can't do anything about it now. The least we can do is hope she can protect herself."_

* * *

Oh my god, _why_ did I tell those two I could handle myself?

I barely have _any_ fighting experience, so why the hell did I think I could keep from getting hurt? Also, I _barely_ even know how to use a gun! The most I've ever done with a gun is hold my dad's, and he was standing there the whole time I was doing that!

The reason why I am complaining to myself is that I've run into another group of Desians. They happened to be beating on some villagers when I came across them, so in my stupid bout of bravery, I shouted at them to get them away from the poor people.

I didn't really think that plan through enough, so they then came after me.

I curse loudly as I dodge another whiplash from one of the four Desians. I've already been hit by that whip five time now, and trust me, it _hurts._ I'm still clutching my newly acquired gun in one hand, but since I don't really know how to use it, and since I have no idea if it actually used real bullets, I'm kind of wary about using it.

I shriek when the whip catches me on the back of the leg, right in the middle of my thigh, and I once again run away from the Desian, standing near the ruins of a burned house. As I stand there, I look at the gun still clutched tightly in my hand.

…God _dammit_. I don't want to use it, but I don't really have a choice, do I?

Two of the Desians form a semi-circle around me, blocking me from running away. One holds a knife, and the other the whip, and both have sinister sneers on their faces.

I make a half panicked, half frustrated sound, and point the gun at the one with the whip. "D-don't come closer!" I get annoyed with myself when my voice cracks half-way through.

The one with the crossbow laughs. "What are you going to do with that, girl? You'll only end up hurting yourself."

The whip-one's smirk widens, as if he's agreeing with his buddy. He steps forward, once again raising the whip.

I startle, and the gun moves downward when I accidentally pull the trigger.

A loud _crack_ fills the air, and the Desian with the whip suddenly drops his weapon, crying out and grabbing hold of his thigh. I look, and see a blood spot appear on his clothes, growing around a small hole in his leg.

Crap, I actually _shot him_.

"Y-you little _bitch_!" The other one shouts, and raises his crossbow. I shriek and fire again, this one aimed at the man's hands. It hits, and the crossbow is knocked out of his hands, which explode in blood. He shrieks and drops to the ground, clutching his injured hand. While he's preoccupied with that, I shoot at the other one again, this time at his shin. He drops as well.

I take out the other two in the same way, each time trying to aim somewhere that isn't lethal. I don't know what these bullets are made of, but they don't really seem to be doing too much damage to my attacker. They do manage to incapacitate them, though, and as soon as the last one drops to the ground, clutching a bullet wound to the thigh and upper arm, I sprint out of there as fast as my legs can carry me.

I don't get far, as I suddenly hear a monstrous roar come from the front of the village. I skid to a halt, once again injuring my feet, and stare in the direction of the noise. Was that…?

As if to answer my question, the area in question is suddenly engulfed in another explosion, and since I'm closer this time, the shockwave almost knocks me off my feet, and I'm pelted with a good amount of rubble. Once the dust clears, I hear a cry of anguish come from the area, and even though I can't hear what was shouted, I still recognize the voice, and I feel my heart sink.

I guess…that explosion was Marble's last stand…

After a few moments, I begin to move towards the village entrance again, but this time at a slower pace. The Desians would be starting to leave now, so there's really no need to hurry. As I walk, I try and ignore the charred and rubble-strewn surroundings around me. I remember from the game that some of the villagers were killed in this attack…and that's something I'm not ready to see.

After a minute or two of walking, I startle slightly when I feel water drop down on my forehead. I look up, and sure enough, a heavy cloud has started to form across the sky. Well…at least the rain will help put out the fires…

Finally, I recognize the area I'm in, and I find myself in the area of the village entrance. I hang back though, hiding behind a piece of broken house when I see the large group formed there.

It doesn't take me long to pick out the two boys from the crowd, seeing as they're singled out. Both their heads are handing low, and I see Genis rubbing at his face. I can only assume he's crying…most likely due to Marble.

Standing in front of them is the mayor, along with two people I recognize as the guards from the front gate. I'm sort of relieved to see they're still alive…just slightly burned.

As I stand near the charred remains, I begin to hear some of the words the mayor is telling them.

"…happened to our village! It's all _your_ fault!"

"I'm sorry…" Lloyd's voice, full of sorrow and regret. I feel a lump form in my throat at his tone.

"You think you can fix this by apologizing?" The mayor rages, and even from here, I can see the scorn on his face. "The Desians marked you as their enemy! As long as you are here…this village will never be at peace." His voice grows cold and emotionless. "Do you understand?"

Suddenly Genis looks up, standing in front of Lloyd, and I see a look of horror on his tear-soaked face. "Wait a minute! You're going to exile him?"

"Yes." The mayor replies, looking indifferent.

"That's not fair!" Genis shouts back, his voice cracking halfway through. "Lloyd didn't do anything wrong! He just saved Marble…"

The mayor interrupts. "Any involvement with the ranch is forbidden. There are no exceptions."

"So it's okay to let people _die_ at the human ranch, as long as the village is safe?" Genis's face contorts in anger at the mayor.

A lady near where I'm standing speaks up. "The people at the ranch are just going to rot there, anyways!" I glare at her back for that comment, but she doesn't notice.

"Yes." The mayor nods at the comment. "Had you not done something so _stupid_, they'd have been the only ones that died."

Oh, the hate I feel towards this pathetic excuse for a leader.

Genis seems to be on the same wavelength as me, and he turns his head downwards, fists clenched. "You humans are all the same…"

"That's enough, Genis." Lloyd suddenly interrupts, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "This…was my fault." Even from here, I can see the guilt on his face. He steps in front of him, and looks at the mayor. "…I'll leave."

"Mayor, surely you don't have to be so strict on a child…" one woman speaks up, and I can see her face is full of pity. A man next to her turns to her, and I can see the rage on his face even from here.

"What are you saying?" he seethes, clenching his fists in anger. "Do you realize how many people _died_ here because of him?"

Genis speaks up again. "It's not Lloyd's fault! I'm the one who took him to the ranch, so it's _my_ fault!"

"But it's _Lloyd_ the Desians are after." the mayor interrupts, "And besides, Lloyd isn't from this village to _begin_ with. He's an outsider, raised by a dwarf!"

Like that has to do with _anything_, you stupid jackass.

"Then _I'm _leaving too." Genis replies, looking at the mayor in anger. "I'm _just_ as guilty as he is."

"Genis…" Lloyd says softly, staring at his friend. The mayor looks at the two of them for a minute, before nodding to himself.

"Fine then." he speaks, looking at them both. "By the rights vested to me as mayor, I hereby announce the banishment of Lloyd and Genis from the village of Iselia."

He points at the entrance. "_Get out!_"

I continue to stand there as the villagers begin to disperse, most likely going to start repairing the damage done by the Desians. Some of them notice me, but they don't bother to ask what I'm doing. Eventually, the only one's left in the square are Lloyd, Genis, Frank and Phaidra.

"I'm sorry for causing you trouble." Lloyd says when the villagers disperse, looking at the ground. After a few moments, Phaidra steps towards him. Her back is towards me, so I can't see her face. However, I'm still able to hear her words.

"If you feel that way, please catch up to the Chosen and protect her." I notice that she refers to her granddaughter as the Chosen, and not by her name…though I can only assume why. Her suggestion catches Lloyd's attention, as well as Genis's, so she continues. "If in doing so, the world is saved…then surely everyone will change their minds about you."

"I'm sure that Colette would want that as well." Frank adds, and it's one of the only things I've heard him say since I've met him.

Lloyd seems to think about this for a second, then nods. "…Yeah. I will atone for what I've done." Through the guilt in his expression, I see a small glint of determination. "I _swear_ to protect Colette, for the sake of those who have died because of me."

Genis turns to his friend, and I see the same determination in his face. "…I'll follow you, Lloyd. I't my fault you were banished. So…I promise to stick by you. Always."

I gain a bit of respect for the half-elf for his statement. To dedicate yourself to a friend like that…that's something that doesn't happen too often.

Lloyd looks at Genis, appreciation in his expression. After a minute, the look fades, and I see Lloyd look down at Geniss hand. "Say, Genis…why don't you use that Exsphere? That's Marble's memento."

At this, Genis looks to his hand, and I realize that he's holding the Exsphere. I see some sadness creep back into the half-elf's face. "…Okay."

Lloyd speaks up again. "I'll explain how to use the Key Crest to you later. After all," He looks to the front gate, "…it looks like it's going to be a long journey."

Oh, Lloyd. You don't even know the half of it.

I continue to stand behind my hiding spot as the two friends walk towards the gates, once again guarded by the two guards. One looks at them with anger, while the other one gives them a look of sympathy. I notice Noishe waiting for them a few feet away from the gate, and after a few moments of Lloyd speaking to him, the giant dog joins them, and they continue to walk.

Only when I can't see them anymore do I finally reveal myself from my place, walking towards Phaidra and Frank. They hear my footsteps, and when they look back, I see a look of surprise on their faces.

"Oh, it's you." Frank says, and I hear recognition in his voice. "I didn't realize you were still in the village…I'm glad to see you're not hurt." I see Phaidra nod in agreement, beforeI look back to the gate.

"What's going to happen to them now?" I ask, even though I already know. Phaidra gazes in the same direction as me, before answering my question.

"They will go to the aid of the Chosen…hopefully they will be able to atone for what has happened here." She looks wistfully at the gate, then looks over to me. "It may be none of my business, but I am curious as to what _you_ will do now, dear."

I look at her, surprised. "Me…?" I blink, then look back towards the gate. "Uh…"

To be honest…I really don't know _what_ I'm gonna do, now. I really don't think I can go in the Regeneration journey…I'd probably end up dead, or end up getting someone else killed. But I can't stay here either…I wouldn't really want to, either, not with what happened here.

Plus, in a way…I do want to help them. I mean…they took care of me when I needed help…even when they didn't have to.

…

I utter a soft groan, then begin to sprit towards the exit, catching Phaidra and Frank by surprise, aswell as the guards by the exit.

"Where are you going?" Frank yells, and I look back to them even as I run past the exit.

"I'm going with them!" I answer, and I turn back before they can reply, picking up the pace.

Gawd, I hope this plan doesn't backfire on me.

* * *

"_Heeeeeeeeeeeeeey!"_

I didn't have to run too far to catch up with the two boys, and I can see them jump at my sudden call to them. They turn around just as I skid to a halt in front of them, and I manage to see the surprise on their faces before I double over, wheezing.

I have done _waaaay_ too much running today.

"Cassie! You're okay!" Lloyd says, and I hear a slight relief in his voice. "…Why did you follow us?"

I take a second to catch my breath, then look up at them. "B-because…I saw what happened…at the village." I gulp, then stand up again, looking at the two of them. "I was there when they banished you two."

Again, I see looks of guilt and sadness cross their faces, and it makes me hesitate. After a few seconds, I steel myself taking a deep breath…and blurt out my next statement.

"Let me go with you guys!"

"W-what?" Lloyd replies after a few seconds, surprised by my question. "Why do you…?"

I hesitate, thinking, before answering. "Because…I want to help." After a few moments of silence, I continue. "You guys helped me when I needed it most…I would probably still be in that tree if you guys hadn't gotten me out of it. I want to return the favor in some way."

Silence from the two follows my small speech, which leads to me awkwardly messing with my fingers. I notice Lloyd and Genis look at each other from the corners of their eyes. After a few seconds, they look back at me, and Lloyd speaks up again.

"Are you sure?" he asks, looking me in the eye. "It's not going to be easy, y'know."

I straighten, looking straight back at him. "Yes." It takes all my courage to say that without shaking. I'm really _not_ sure…but I can't back down now.

"…" Lloyd sighs. "Fine, fine. You can come." Even through all the events of today, I still see a grin appear on his face. "Try not to slow us down too much."

I smirk back at him. "Same to you."

I really hope I'm doing the right thing here.

* * *

DOOOOOOOOOONE

I honestly don't know when I'll have the next chapter out, as it's Spring Break and I will most likely be lazy the whole time.

Also I got Tales of Graces F, so I'M GONNA BE PRETTY OCCUPIED WITH THAT FOR A WHILE HURRRRRRRR

**NEXT TIME: Treasure trove in a belt**


	7. Black Stone

IF MOKAMONN CAN UPDATE, **SO CAN I**

**EVEN IF SHE UPLOADED QUITE A WHILE AGO**

Hiiiii guys! Hope you haven't forgotten about me in just a month or two! I would have had this up sooner, but I had a bit of a block on how to start this chapter. Because this chapter is basically nothing but character conversations that I've pulled out of my butt _which is really hard to do and __**ajskfbngd**_

Not only that, I seem to have periods where I work on my fan fictions in a mad frenzy of ideas, and all of a sudden stop and do some other crap for a few months. I tend to do that with everything _else_ in my life as well, so you can imagine how annoying that is for me. I never finish games because of it. DX

Also, I AM NOW SEVENTEEN WHICH MEANS I AM OFFICIALLY OLDER THAN MY SELF-INSERT. WHICH IS SAD BECAUSE I WAS YOUNGER THAN HER WHEN I STARTED THIS DAMN THING.

*sobs into oblivion at procrastination*

WHOOP REVIEW TIME

Kenegi

Yes indeed-y, Raine _shall_ have a new student! And watch as I make Cassie be tortured by the wrath of the ruin-maniac Professor. XD

Chang-Tong

The whole situation with Cassie's gun "not being so effective" shall be explained somewhere in this chapter! And just because those bullets made them bleed doesn't mean they can do a lot of damage…BUT I'll leave the explanation of that to the chapter!

And I did have a scenario in my head where that Desian would wake up and stand only to have his pants fall down. It had me in giggles when I wrote that part of the chapter. XD

Awright, chapter time! AWAAAAAAAAAAAY

EDIT: Fixed some grammar errors at the advice of a friend who likes to read this. If you see anymore, though, point them out to me so I can fix it.

**DISCLAIMER:** **Don't own, don't own, dongjnfkg fdhj b**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Black Stone**

"Hey…"

"Hm? What?"

"What…what time is it?"

"Uh…about around ten, I guess."

"…Shit, really? I thought it would be later."

"Why the heck would you think that?"

I throw up my hands at Genis's question. "Because we've been walking for a while and it's been a long day!"

…So yeah, hi again. If you've just tuned in to my little adventure I'm having at the moment, we have been walking a pretty long time. We left the village behind about…possibly three hours ago. That's only an estimate, though, as I can't check my phone to be sure. Seeing as phones don't exactly _exist _here.

Getting back to the point, it's been three hours or so. And I'm not really doing so well, seeing as I've put my feet through a lot of _crap_ this whole day. I've practically scraped all the skin off my feet from running around the village, and although I fixed most of that with an Apple Gel from this nifty belt I now have, they're still really tender and shit. Plus, once again, I've been walking for about three hours on my bare feet.

On a dirt road.

With a lot of rocks and twigs.

Owchie.

Not _only_ that, but my nerves are pretty frayed after what's happened so far today. I usually don't _ever_ get stressed, as I try not to let things stress me out, but…I've had a pretty shitty day so far. Plus, I had a _really_ bad day yesterday because of reasons that _all of you_ already know about, so…yeah. I'm kind of…stressing right now.

At least it stopped raining.

Lloyd looks back at me as we trudge along the path. "C'mon, we haven't been walking _that_ long. Why are you complaining?"

I give him a look, pointing at my feet with my free hand (I'm carrying my stolen gun with the other). "You seem to have forgotten that I'm walking around _barefoot_. Believe it or not, there's a lot of crap on the road." I'm not even gonna bother trying to fix my (possibly bleeding) feet with another Apple Gel. I'd just end up cutting them up again about five minutes later.

Lloyd makes a face at my explanation. "…Good point." He brings his focus back onto me. "Do you wanna stop for a bit?"

I pause for a second, before answering. "Sure…as long as it doesn't slow us down much."

I follow the two boys, along with Noishe, over to some stray trees alongside the path. I'm surprised that there are even trees here to _begin_ with, as this is supposed to be a giant plain area until we reach the desert. At least, from what I remember.

When I sit down under a particularly large tree, placing the gun next to me on the ground, I find myself feeling less stressed. Even though I have a slight grudge against them now, I still love trees with a burning passion. I live, and grew up, in Missouri, which means that there's a lot of plant life around. Because of that, I happen to really love all kinds of greenery.

We have at least five massive trees on our small property, and there are a shit ton more all over my neighborhood and everywhere else in the city I live in. I remember when I was younger, due to childhood ignorance, I thought that the people who built all the houses in my neighborhood put it right in the middle of a forest, simply due to the sheer _number_ of them, as well as their enormous size. It was always so pretty around this time of year…

Ugh, homesickness. Just look at the trees, Cassie. It'll go awaaaaaay…

I don't move when the two boys plop down on either side of me, but I do jump a bit when Noishe plops down next to Lloyd, as he makes the ground shake a bit. After I recover from that, I take the next moment to look over my feet again. Sure enough, they're scraped and cut up to heck. It's really not that bad, just bleeding a lot, due to my incredibly soft feet.

"Great. My feet look like shredded, dirty meat." I say, making a face. I _know_ I just said that it's not all that bad, but it still _looks _bad, hence my statement. And I know it'll just get worse as we keep walking. Good lord, I don't even want to _imagine_ what walking through the desert will be like.

Well, at least I'll have tough feet after this.

I'm snapped out of my reverie when I find an Apple Gel being handed to me by Lloyd. I look at him a second, before taking it from him.

"Thanks." I tell him, beginning to rub half of the gel on my left foot (it actually works like this as well), "But, y'know, this'll just keep happening until I actually get myself a pair of shoes." I wince a little at the sting from the gel healing the scrapes, but I recover pretty quickly.

"Why are you even walking around barefoot, anyways?" Genis asks me, and I spare him a glance before going back to my feet, beginning to apply the rest of the gel to the other foot.

"I think you've already asked me this, my dear Genis." I see him scowl at me from the corner of my eye, but continue. "To be honest, I didn't _expect_ to be walking around barefoot to begin with."

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Lloyd joins in, and I see he has a confused look on his face. I feel a little bit of nervousness settle in the bottom of my stomach, but I push it down.

"Uh…nothing." I reply after a minute, avoiding looking at the two of them. I finish with my feet, so I place my hands in my lap, crossing my legs at the same time.

There's a pause, then Genis speaks up. "Does this have to do with what happened yesterday?"

I flinch a bit, ducking my head down towards my chest. "…Maybe." Watch me try and fail to avoid the subject. Agh.

"That reminds me…you never did explain yourself to us." Lloyd joins in, and I duck my head down further. "Y'know, why you were in that tree and stuff."

I look at him from the corner of my eye. "…You want me to tell you guys this _now_?"

The brunette shrugs a bit. "Hey, we've got some time." He leans back against the tree trunk, keeping his eyes on me. "We're all ears."

"Yup." Genis this time, and when I look over, I see he has that same look on his face. And now I have _both_ of them staring at me.

Noishe whines a bit, and I see that _he's_ staring at me _too._

So now it's three against one.

Goddammit.

After a few moments of this, I sigh through my nose and run my hands through my hair in a nervous gesture. "I don't really know where to start…it's really confusing."

"Well, just start at the beginning." Lloyd says, still looking at me. "It'll probably make more sense when you start talking."

I place my head in my hands for a few seconds at his statement, thinking. Finally, I heave a giant sigh and throw my head back, so I'm looking up at the leaves for a moment. Then, looking straight ahead, I start talking.

"Well, um…it happened when I came home after school."

* * *

In a small span of time, I manage to tell them about all the weird events that led to me landing on Colette. I make sure to leave out a couple of things, like me talking to my dad on the phone, and of course I leave out _anything_ to do with the Gamecube. I don't think _that_ would go down too well with them. I'll just keep all the details about Earth to myself for now.

Also, I had...really no idea how to explain the whole 'me falling from the sky thing'. Somehow, I managed to come up with the (lightly cliche'd) excuse that I had blacked out at some point, and the next thing I remembered was being in that tree.

I'll have to remember that for later in case anyone else asks.

When I finish, there's silence from the two boys, leaving me to fidget around with my hands for a minute or two. Finally, I heave my third sigh, speaking up once again.

"So, that's it." I tell them, keeping my eyes glued to the path in front of us. "If you have any comments, go ahead and say them."

"Uh…" Lloyd finally speaks up, a stunned look on his face. He shakes his head a bit before speaking again. "That's a…pretty wild story."

"Told ya." I mumble, and I move my hand up in a random gesture. "I don't even understand _half_ of what happened. Though I can say this- from where I was before I ended up near Iselia, I can tell you that it was _nowhere_ near here."

Oh, what an understatement _that_ is.

"Yeah, but…" Genis begins, and I look over to him. "How can something like that even happen?" He gives me a weird look. "Are you sure you aren't making this up?"

I scoff at his question, and my face heats up slightly. "Wh-_No!_" I start making weird gestures with my hands. "Dude, do you not remember how _bad_ I was yesterday?." I start counting my fingers as I speak. "I've fallen through trees, into a pond, and off a cliff. I ended up covered in cuts, bruises, and I got a _broken wrist_." I point to my feet. "I'm running around here friggin' _barefoot!_ Why the _heck_ would I be making this up? There's no point!"

There's a long silence after my small speech, creating a moment of awkwardness. After a few moments, I sigh again, and I bring my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them. "The point is…I'm _really_ confused about what's going on right now. One minute, I'm at home, and the next thing I know I'm somewhere I don't even recognize. I don't even know how far away I am from home. And then with the Desian attack, and you guys getting banished, I just…" I duck my face into the folds of my arms. "I have no idea what to do."

I stay in my little ball, not speaking, thinking over what I just said. Talking about that kind of stuff with some people I just met (personally)…it's _weird._ I mean, it would be weird for _anyone_ to do that, but…these guys aren't even supposed to be _real._ That just makes it _really_ weird.

_That_ and I usually don't confess stuff like that without bursting into tears or something. Unfortunately, I'm a sensitive little idgit when it comes to my emotions, so talking about personal stuff like that _without_ crying…is _extremely_ weird for me.

Basically, this whole moment of silence is nothing but a big blob of weird and nerves.

I jump slightly when I feel a hand on my shoulder, and when I look up, I see its Lloyd again. He's looking at me with an unreadable look…at least for me. I'm not so good at reading faces.

I rub my face with my hand, trying to distract myself. "Sorry." I look back to Lloyd, my hand still on my face. "I _really_ shouldn't be dropping this crap on you guys right now. Especially after everything that happened…plus, I don't really know you guys yet." I drop the hand. "It's just…ugh."

Yeah, I am _so_ good at explaining shit.

Lloyd shakes him head slightly at me, an awkward smirk on his face. "Hey, don't worry about it." He looks away, most likely glancing at Genis. "I mean…we're most likely gonna be stuck together for a while. Better to get this stuff out in the open _now_, right?"

I raise an eyebrow at that, looking back to the road. "…I guess so." I give a little snort. "Well, thanks for listening to me anyways. Nice of you to do that."

"No problem." Lloyd gives me a little pat on the shoulder, making me feel a bit awkward, before dropping his hand again. He gets a sort of serious look on his face. "Still…what happened to you is kind of…weird."

I scoff. "_That's_ an understatement." I stop for a second, and then shrug. "Well, there's really no point in discussing it right now. I told you guys what happened to me, and we don't really need to go further into it right now. It'd just be a waste of time."

"Well, now what?" I look at Genis, who I actually kind of forgot was there. He hasn't really said anything the whole time. He shrugs at my stare. "We can't just sit here doing nothing."

I know he's right, and I look to the road again, thinking for a few seconds…

Ooh, idea!

I nod to myself. "Well, I don't know about you guys…" I reach down next to me, pick up my forgotten weapon, and hold it in the air. "But I'm gonna look over all this loot I got!"

"Oh yeah!" Lloyd says, looking at my gun. "I forgot you had a weapon now." A small silence. "…What is it, exactly?"

"Looks like a gun to me." I say, waving it a bit. "Y'know, a projectile weapon?" I bring said weapon back down from the air, looking it over. "I got it off a Desian back at the village. He was about to shoot me with it, but I knocked it out of his hand and took it."

As I look over the gun, I see that it's actually quite different from the kinds back home. It has similar dimensions to a 9 mm handgun, but with a few differences in the build. The chamber part of the gun is a light silver color, and there's a small scope on the top, close to the muzzle of the gun. On the back is a little half circle, with a piece of metal that I believe is the hammer, but it seems a bit different. The handle is curved slightly, made of wood, with a metal plating covering the inside portion of the handle.

One of the most obvious traits about the thing is a container of sorts placed where the inside chamber of the gun, where the bullets sit, usually is. A strange liquid of sorts sits inside, a vibrant blue, and strangely, filled with bubbles. Little wisps of something appear at random points in the liquid, but I can't tell what they are.

Something else I notice is that, when I accidentally fire the gun into some trees, it makes less noise than a regular gun. While the ones back home fire with a loud _crack _noise, this one fires with a dull _boom_ noise. Plus, the bullets it fires…aren't really bullets. When I found the point where my accidental shot landed, instead of a _real_ bullet, I found a bullet-sized white pellet, tinged a slight blue color. When I tried to pick it up, the thing disintegrated, and I felt a little jolt of…something…pass through my hand. It would explain why those bullets I fired into the Desians didn't have as much as an effect as real bullet would have.

I'm gonna have to find someone who can explain this weapon to me.

After our look-over of my gun, we decide to take a look at whatever goodies came with the belt I get from the Desian. It took me a second to take it off so we could look at it properly, as it was covered in little pouches, but when I managed, we immediately dove in.

So far, we've found about seven Apple Gels, four Orange Gels, three Panacea Bottles, and _way_ too many Magic Lens. I know that those things could come in handy when fighting monsters, but honestly. There were a _lot_.

Of course, it didn't really matter. Apparently, we were low on supplies anyways.

Along with that, I happened to find a bag of Gald in one of the pouches, which was pretty exciting. As it turned out, the money is _exactly_ the way I imagined it- a bunch of gold coins. The smallest piece is a 10 Gald piece, which was the size of a dime, and the biggest piece I could find was a 100 Gald one, roughly the size of a half-dollar.

The cool thing about them was, each different coin had its own special engraving, like the coins we have at home. Only instead of the faces of the Presidents, it was stuff like the Great Kharlan Tree, and the Tower of Salvation. Some of it was stuff I didn't even recognize, which…probably means I should study up on some history while I'm here.

Right now, all that stuff is sitting in a pile next to me, while I investigate the remaining pouch, the largest one on the back of the belt. I'm talking to the two boys as I do this, so it's taking me a bit to actually open the damn thing.

"Wait, so you just _took_ the belt off the Desian?" Genis asks me, messing around with his kendama as he talks. While he does that, Lloyd is sitting by Noishe, absently scratching him behind the ears. He got scared and ran off when I accidentally fired my gun, but he came back about five minutes later. He seems to have calmed down, but he's sending me a growl every couple of minutes, most likely because I scared him.

"It's not like he was _using_ it at the moment. Dude was knocked unconscious." I'm still fiddling around with the flap of the pouch as I talk. All of the pouches have little cords on the flaps that are supposed to wrap around a button on the actual pouch, to keep them secure, but this one seems to have twisted up on itself, and I'm currently trying to undo the stupid knot.

"Well yeah, sure, but…" Lloyd gives me a weirded-out look. "That seems kind of weird, don't you think?"

"If it makes you feel better, imagine him waking up and standing only to have his pants fall down." After a few more twists, the knot comes undone. "Ha! Got it!"

At my exclamation, the two scoot a bit closer to me, and even though I'm not looking at them, I can tell they're staring over my shoulder at the pouch. Noishe, abandoned by Lloyd, settles with chewing on a stick while we begin to investigate the pouch.

It shouldn't really be a big deal looking through a pouch on a belt, but remember – it's a _Desian_ belt. There could be _bombs_ in this friggin' thing!

Because of that fact, I don't lift the flap up when I begin to reach into the pouch. Mainly because I don't want something popping out that shouldn't be in there. And it's a good thing too, because the first thing I touch in the pouch is something…long and hard.

I know what you're thinking. Stop right now.

After carefully groping around the…object, I grab what I believe to be the middle, and slowly pull it out of the pouch. What I find is actually quite surprising.

In my hand is, obviously, some sort of weapon, as I'm holding it around its sheath, which is a light brown color. The sheathed portion is about three to four inches long, about five when you include the other half, consisting of a leather clad grip, with a gold-colored guard and butt.

"Is that…?" Lloyd begins to say, but stops before getting anything else out. And I know he's staring at the object, just as I'm doing.

I already know what this thing is, and what it may have done.

That doesn't deter me though, and I grasp the grip lightly with my right hand, keeping the sheath in a tighter grip with the other, and I shiver a bit at the light screech of metal when I pull the weapon out slightly.

The glint of a one-edged knife winks at me, curved slightly at the spine. I stare at the metal for a few seconds, before sliding it back into the sheath with a dull _thunk._

Really, this doesn't surprise me as much as it should. A whole bunch of the Desians in the game were equipped with just knifes, so I guess it's the standard weapon for them. The one who owned this belt, obviously, wasn't an exception.

"What are you gonna do with it?" I blink, looking at Genis in response to his question. He's staring at the knife, same as Lloyd, but he spares me a glance for a second. I slowly turn back to the knife, which suddenly feels heavy in my hands.

This thing…has most likely been used to kill people. That's what the Desians use these things for- to hurt others. Do I really want something like that with me? I would say no, but to be honest…I could use this. It never hurts to have a back-up weapon on you when you could be in danger. And in my case, I could be in a _lot_ of danger in the future.

…

"I'll keep it." I say, finally. I glance at the two boys quickly, and then turn back to the knife, before placing it on the ground next to me. "It may be a Desian weapon, but it might come in handy later."

"…All right then." Lloyd responds, and I manage to see him shrug before I begin to dig back into the belt pouch.

Needless to say, most of the rest of the stuff in there is nothing but a bunch of junk - broken pencils, scraps of paper, etcetera. I do find some sheets of paper with a bunch of diagrams on them, which were interesting, but the handwriting on them is so sloppy that I have absolutely NO idea what its saying. But the words _were _in English, which relieved me greatly, because I don't think I could handle it if this world had a different writing system.

I set those down next the knife, and then set back to digging through the pouch. My fingers hit another object, and I grasp onto it. It fits easily into my palm, and I bring it out into the open, so I can see what it is.

What I find surprises me. Laying in my palm, glinting in the sunlight, is a gold-colored ornament, covered in strange runes, with a depression lying in the middle.

I sense Lloyd perk up behind me, and I practically _feel_ him strain closer to me as he point a hand at the object.

"Hey, that's a Key Crest!" I hear astonishment in his voice. "Why the heck was that in there?"

I stare at the object in my hand with the same expression. "I…don't know." Don't Desians usually wear Exspheres? If so, this thing should be still on the guy back at Iselia. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to use it.

So why is it here?

Searching for answers, I stuff the Key Crest into my hoodie pocket, and then dig my hand into the pouch once again. I move my hand around carefully, so I don't miss anything in the seemingly empty pouch.

Then, near one of the corners, I find what I'm looking for. My fingers brush against a roundish object, and I immediately grab it and bring it out, opening my hand to see what it is.

It's not what I was expecting.

The object I'm holding is a round stone of some sort, about the size of a large marble. It glints when I roll it in my palm. Normally, since it was in the same pouch as a Key Crest, I would think it was an Exsphere. However, there's a problem with that theory.

Now, from what I remember from the game and the OVA's, Exspheres are usually a red color, or sometimes blue, as Lloyd's sphere indicates. So what's the problem with this thing?

This stone is black.

Staring at the sphere in my hand, I notice something else about the color too. It's not just a solid black color, but rather, a shifty, rolling black. What appears to be swirling clouds move around the inside, making intriguing shifts of black and dark grey.

I roll the stone on my hand, until I'm holding it firmly in my fingers, bringing it to my face. "What the heck is this thing?"

"Let me see it." I look at Lloyd at his statement, and when he beckons to the thing with hid hand, I give it to him. Holding it in his fingers, he brings it up in the sunlight, squinting at it. "Weird…it kind of looks like an Exsphere. Except…" He brings it back down, giving the stone a confused look. "I've never seen an Exsphere that's this color."

I lean towards him a bit, trying to get another look at the strange sphere, when I hear the crinkle of paper under my hand. Looking down, I see I've placed my hand on those pieces of paper that I found earlier.

However, this time, I notice something that catches my attention.

"Lloyd, let me see that." I say, picking up the papers with my left hand and beckoning with the other. I don't look at him, so I don't see his face when he places it in my hand a few seconds later.

I didn't see it before when I first scanned through these papers, but one of the diagrams on a sheet has grabbed my attention- a black blob of ink near the corner. Normally, one would mistake it for just an ink blot, but as I bring the sphere to the paper, I see that it's not the case.

The blob on the paper is the exact same size as the sphere in my hand.

It's then that I realize that it's not a blob - It's a sketch.

"This paper has something to do with this stone." I say out loud, pointing out the sketch to the two next to me. "See? This is a picture someone drew of it." Still clutching the mystery sphere in one hand, I bring the document closer to my face, trying to read the illegible scrawl next to the sketching.

"What's it say?" Genis asks me, and I feel him trying to look over my shoulder to read the paper. Lloyd is doing the exact same thing, but I don't think their going to get anywhere. Whoever wrote on this thing obviously had horrible handwriting. Plus, I think it's in cursive. I can't really read cursive.

"Oh, wait, here's an 'E'!" I exclaim, my eyes zero-ing in on the random letter. I spend the next couple of seconds trying to make out the rest of the word next to it.

Okay, let's see…is that an 'h' or an 'n'? I think there's an 's' in here, but I'm not entirely sure. And what the fuck is that, another 'e'? Or just a random scrawl on the end of the word?

Oh my god, I hate cursive.

"Um - okay, that first part is E-X. That, I'm pretty of." I screw up my eyes, desperately trying to make out the rest of the mystery word.

"I think that next one's an 's'." Lloyd remarks, pointing to the letter next to the scrawl of 'x'.

Alright, so we have 'E-X-S' so far. Okay, words that start with that…um…uh…I have no idea.

Wait. Maybe…?

"…Does that say Exsphere?" I mumble, staring at the scrawl carefully. Now that I've said it aloud…it _does_ look that way. As far as I can tell, it has the same number of letters…and most of the letters are the same.

I nod. "Yep. It says Exsphere." I look to the stone in my hand. "Guess that means this is the real deal."

Looking at the jewel, though, it's still kind of hard to believe that it's actually an Exsphere. Whenever I played the game, I never heard of an Exsphere this strange…or of this color.

"Does that paper say anything else about it?" Genis asks. I shake my head, looking back to the document.

"Well, if it _did_ say anything else, we wouldn't be able to read it." I shake the paper. "Whoever wrote on this thing obviously had the worst handwriting known to man." That said, I place the paper back with the others. "Still, we know what it is now. At least we have that."

Suddenly, a spark of an idea comes to my mind. Thinking, I look down at the black Exsphere in my hand, and without looking, pull the nearly forgotten Key Crest out of my pocket. I bring both up closer to my face, one object in each hand.

"Hey, Lloyd." I sense the brunette look at me at the mention of his name. "This Exsphere…" I look back at him. "Do you think it would be safe to use?"

He blinks at me. "Um…maybe?" He suddenly glares at me. "Hang on; you're actually thinking of _using_ that thing?"

"Mmm'yup." I shrug a bit. "I mean, nobody else is using it right now. We can't just let it go to waste." I hold up the stone, waving it a bit. "Plus, I don't really have one, myself. It could come in handy for me."

Lloyd continues to give me that look. "Still, I don't think it's a good idea." He points at the little stone, which I'm still holding up. "I haven't really seen too many Exspheres myself, but no matter _how _you look at it, that thing isn't normal. We don't know_ what_ it could do to you."

"I'm with Lloyd." I turn to Genis, who's giving me a similar look. "That thing was with a Desian. If they had it, it _has_ to be for something bad."

I huff a little, even though they're probably right.

We end up arguing for a little bit about the Exsphere in general, but after a few minutes, we come up with something that we can all agree on. As a test, I'll try equipping the Exsphere, and if it does anything weird to me, then we're tossing it. If it doesn't, then I'll keep it, but we'll keep an eye on it in case it does anything freaky later.

Now that _that_ matter is settled, I take the time to find out where I want to stick this Key Crest. After a few seconds of debate, I decide to stick it on my hand, like Lloyd and Genis do, so I can keep an eye on it easier that way. Plus, it's more convenient.

"Have you ever put on an Exsphere before this?" Lloyd asks me as I stick the Key Crest on my right hand. Believe it or not, it actually just stays put there. Kind of like a really good Band-Aid.

I look at him, shaking my head. "Nope. Why?"

He taps his left temple. "You'll probably get a head rush, then. Happened to me when I first put on my Exsphere." His face screws up a bit, like he's thinking. "I…can't remember why though. I think the Professor explained it to me once."

I see Genis roll his eyes out of the corner of my eye. "Lloyd, she told you about it five times!"

The brunette blushes. "I forgot!"

Behold, Lloyd, the model student. I sort of chuckle to myself at the two of them, before holding up the black Exsphere. "Welp, here goes nothing."

Carefully, I line up the stone with the indent in the center of the Key Crest. Once I have it in place, I slowly push down on it, trying to prepare myself for some dizziness.

There's a small _click._

And then I can't see.

Green lights flash in my eyes as a rush of dizziness hits me, and I feel myself fall over from the force of it. Blindly, I grasp the nearest object, to keep myself upright, only to grab some fabric. One of the boys. I blink sharply and rapidly, trying to clear the explosions of light under my eyelids as my body turns cold and tingly. I feel a hand on my shoulder, and there's voices I can't make out over the ringing in my ears.

After a few seconds, the lights begin to fade from my vision, along with the cold, tingly feeling in my limbs. As my eyes come back into focus, I happen to glance at the Exsphere now sitting on my hand.

I see the faintest color of blue fade from its black surface, and suddenly everything's clear again.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" I manage to get out, before my companions can ask me. I look to see who's holding on to my shoulder, and of course, it's Lloyd. I also see that I was grabbing onto the shoulder of his jacket, and I release my grip.

"You don't _look_ alright!" the brunette replies, looking worried. "You look like you're about to pass out!"

"Yeah. You're _really_ pale." Genis chimes in, with the same worried tone in his voice.

Jeez, I've known these guys for two days. I have _got_ to make them stop worrying about me.

I wave my now free hand at them. "I'm _fine._" I repeat, shaking my head slightly to relieve the leftover dizziness. "That head rush was just a bit worse than I was expecting."

They still don't look convinced. I roll my eyes. "Honestly guys, I'm alright." To prove my point, I stand up, catching them a bit off guard. "See? Never better!"

Just to let you guys know, I'm really not lying to them. As I stand, I feel…some sort of energy running through me. I feel like I've just ate a whole bunch of sugar, and suddenly I'm bouncing in place.

I feel like I could friggin' run a mile.

Lloyd and Genis look to one another, then back at me. A few moments later, they stand up as well, and Noishe, seeing this, does the same.

"Are you _sure_ you're okay?" Lloyd asks as Noishe walks over to him. I give him a thumbs up, practically jumping off the ground with the maniac energy running through me.

"Yup-yup." Remembering something, I kneel to the ground, and begin quickly packing all the stuff that we took out of my belt back into their pouches. I linger a little bit over the knife, but other than that, I get that task done in about two minutes.

I quickly put back on the belt (at least, as quick as I can), reach back down, grab my gun off the ground, and quickly stand back up. I wave in the direction of the trail with the weapon.

"So, are we gonna get going?" I say, grinning. "We still need to catch up with Colette and the others, right? We've wasted enough time here."

That gets Lloyd to stop staring. Astonishment covers his face, and he looks up towards the sun, which is almost directly above us, indicating it's almost noon. "Oh, you're right!" He looks back down. "We'd better get going!"

"Alright then!" Almost exploding with excitement and newfound energy, I begin to march down the road, pointing with my free hand. "Onward!"

I hope this energy lasts for a while.

* * *

I had almost forgotten about monsters.

_Almost_.

We've been walking for a few more hours now, only stopping for a quick lunch break (Genis made some yummy sandwiches), and for the most part, I was feeling pretty good! That crazy energy that came over me before we left stayed with me for quite a while, and I could only fathom that it must have come from my new Exsphere. The thing may be weird, but is sure is cool!

However, my feeling of glee didn't last too long. With all the business with the Desians, talks with Lloyd and Genis, and raiding my belt, I had completely forgotten about the monsters. It's actually not surprising, as I've only seen one monster battle since coming here.

That was quickly rectified, however, as we've just run into a large group of them.

Lovely.

The group of monsters we've encountered consists of some Wolfs, Hawks, and some of those weird mushroom things that hang around the Iselia area in the game. They looked pretty cute then, but now? Not really.

I duck down when one of the Hawks decides to try and take my head off, and while I'm down there, I fire at one of the little mushroom things beginning to swarm my feet. "Guys, I need a bit of help over here!"

"Kind of busy!" Lloyd shouts back, whacking one of the Wolfs over the head with a sword. While Lloyd is taking care of them, Genis is trying to Fire Ball one of the Hawks out of the sky. He's not doing so well at that, as one of them tries to claw my head again.

I yelp a bit when one of the mushroom guys tries to jump at my face when I duck down to avoid the Hawk, but I manage to slap the thing out of the air before it can hit me. I fire at a few more bullets at the little creatures, and I'm relieved to see one of them go down.

My relief is short lived, as the Hawk comes back again, knocking me in the back of the head.

I do a graceful faceplant into the rest of the mushroom monsters, and I'm forced to roll away when they begin to latch onto my face.

"Agh! Get off me!" I bat at my face with my free hand, trying to dislodge one of the mushroom things. This one has a pretty tight grip, and I can tell, I'm not getting anywhere. And I feel the other ones swarming me again.

Oh god, I would _kill_ for a Fire Ball right now.

At that thought, a sudden dizziness overtakes me, and I feel something begin to swirl around me, dense and full of heat. I close my eyes, bringing a hand to my face to try and shield it. I realize it's my Exsphere hand, which feels just as warm as the strange force around me, and I feel the little monster on my face fall off with a shriek.

I hear strange little pops, and the sound of something rushing through the air.

I open my eyes, trying to find what the source of the noise, and see balls of fire soaring through the air, some impacting that Hawk that kept dive-bombing me, some hitting the little mushrooms. They're different from the Fire Balls Genis makes, a lot smaller in size, and I'm left wondering where they're coming from.

When I sit up, I see a strange inscription fade away from under me, and I realize.

They came from me.

Shock fills me, as well as a bit of fear, so much so that I don't hear the rest of the monsters being taken care of by the two boys. I'm left staring at my hands, still sitting, until I hear footsteps behind me.

When I turn, slowly, still holding up my hands, I see Lloyd and Genis standing behind, both with astonished looks on their faces.

I try to say something, _anything_, to the two, but I only manage to gape like a dying fish.

Finally, Lloyd breaks the silence. "How…how did you _do_ that?"

I look down, back to my hands. "I…I don't…"

The brunette gives me a strange look. He's silent for a few seconds, but speaks up again. "Only elves and half-elves can use magic, right?" His tone is unreadable. "Are…you a half-elf?"

"No!" I reply immediately, looking back at him. "I'm not! I've- I've _never _been able to do that before!" Even as I say that, I feel a small doubt in the back of mind. Did…coming here do something to me?

Just to make sure, I quickly bring my hands up to my ears, feeling for anything that wasn't there before. However, they feel just the same as they always have. No points.

"I don't think she is one." Genis speaks up, and I see he's biting his lip, like he's thinking about something. "I mean…her mana doesn't _feel_ like a half-elf's…or an elf's."

"But then…" I speak up, staring at him. "How was I able to…do that?" I look down, my hands falling away from my ears. "How could I just use magic? It shouldn't be-"

I stop as a thought enter my mind.

Maybe…?

Slowly, I look down, until my eyes are on the Exsphere sitting on my hand. Lloyd and Genis do the same, most likely seeing the look on my face, and there's a collective silence.

"You don't think…?" Lloyd trails off before he finishes. I keep staring at my hand for a few more seconds, before looking up.

"There's only one way to find out."

Looking back down, I point myself in a direction away from the boys, towards a small bush nearby. I lift my hand so it's level with the bush, and the Exsphere glints in the sunlight.

Okay, so…how did I do it before? I think for a few seconds, before I just decide to try an obvious method. I close my eyes, thinking hard to what happened a few moments before.

I say it at the same moment I think it.

"_Fire Ball."_

The same rush of dizziness overtakes me, and I open my eyes this time. In front of me, the Exsphere is still the same, but I feel the same strange heat around my hand. I see a glowing inscription underneath me.

A ball of fire appears in front of me. It's small, but it's still surprising, and it flies into the small bush, causing it to burst into flames.

But not before I see my Exsphere flash a faint, light blue.

"Whoa!" Lloyd exclaims next to me, staring at the now blazing bush. "You did it again!"

I nod, astonished, and then bring my hand closer. "Yeah…but I don't think it's me that's doing it."

He looks down at me, confused. "What do you mean?"

I answer with a sigh through the nose. I've got to try something really quick, to see if I'm right…

I bring my left hand up, grab the Exsphere with my nails, and, bracing myself, pull it out of the Key Crest.

"Whoa! What are you doing?"

I don't answer him at first, reeling from a sudden exhaustion. Shaking my head a bit, I look back to the burning bush, lifting my hand a second time. "Testing something."

I once again attempt to form a Fire Ball to hit the bush, concentrating.

To my astonishment, and relief, nothing happens.

I open my eyes, and stare down at the black sphere in my hand. "That's just freaky."

"What happened?" I look to Genis, who looks as confused as I feel. Same with Lloyd. I gesture to the Exsphere in my hand.

"I'm not too sure, but I think this thing has something to do with it." I can hear my voice fill with wonder as I explain what I just found out to them. "When I had this thing on, I was able to throw that Fire Ball at that bush over there." I point to said bush, which is now nothing but smoldering ash. I point back to me. "But when I took it off, which I just did, I wasn't able to do it."

I continue. "Not _only_ that, but like Lloyd said-" I gesture to said brunette, "Only elves and half-elves can use magic. I'm human, so I shouldn't be able to use it, right?" I wave the Exsphere at them, the volume of my voice rising in excitement. "But somehow, this thing let me use it!"

I nod to myself. "And now I know why the Desian I stole this from had this in the first place."

I see astonishment fall onto Genis's face, as he most likely comes to the same conclusion I have. Lloyd still looks a bit confused though. To help him out, I decide to say what Genis and I are thinking, what should be impossible.

"This Exsphere can let me use magic."

* * *

I really hope that's not a crappy way to end the chapter. HOWEVER, THERE ARE ALMOST 8,000 WORDS TO THIS THING, SO I DON'T REALLY CARE RIGHT NOW.

It seems that our little group has found something quite interesting, huh? May seem kind of important, but actually, it's really now. _However, _that Exsphere does have something to do with the plot, so there will be more explanation into it later.

Drop a review if you like, whether you would like to tell me if you like this chapter or not, or to point out any errors you see in the writing. This _is_ a big chapter, so I may not find all of them.

**NEXT TIME: Nova's Caravan and deserts.**


	8. Nova's Caravan and Stupid Deserts

So it's been a little over a month since I've last updated…but hey, another big chapter!

Hope that makes up for it. :D

I had a bit of trouble actually _starting_ this chapter, because…this chapter is basically needless banter. And it's exactly like the last chapter - not too much plot development. But the next chapter will see some plot action! So count on that.

Mokamonn

I actually tend to write awkward moments like that really well…most likely because I'm an awkward person myself. Beneficial to the chapter, not so much to real life. XD

Oh, btw, HAPPY BIRFDAY. :D

Bittersweet Smiles

I've never actually seen an S.I that comes out and tells most of the truth right off the bat, so I'd figure I'd try it out with mine. And so far, it seems to have worked…I don't really know.

And I noticed that little error too. I fixed that. J

Sailor Winx

I've noticed that not many S.I characters have glasses…so I assume that either they're just not portrayed with glasses, have contacts, or just don't need them. Unfortunately, I do need glasses, so I can't exactly give my character perfect vision. :P

And I'm sorry if my chapters kind of drag on! I guess it's because I tend to try and be descriptive…

**NOTE: **Since I tend to miss grammar errors when I'm looking over my chapters, if any of you guys see some that I've missed, please let me know in your reviews! It helps me out when you guys see stuff that I don't, because then I get better at spotting them. :D

**(11-18) –** OH MY GOD OKAY SO EVERYTHING THAT I HAD ON HERE BEFORE ABOUT THE CARAVAN WAS WROOOOOOOONG SO I FIXED IT. Just a note tho, the way the caravan works in this fic is still gonna be slightly different than how it is in the game. Because I just did noT WANT TO CHANGE EVERYTHING I HAD ALREADY WRITTEN.

**DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING**

* * *

**Chapter 8: Nova's Caravan and Stupid Deserts**

"But…it _still_ doesn't make any sense! How can an _Exsphere_ let someone use magic?"

"Lloyd, we don't _know_! That's why we're trying to find out!"

"Maybe it has something to do with its' color? I mean, you _did_ say they're not usually like this, right?"

"Well…yeah. But even if it is a weird color, how the heck does that make it do something like that?"

I sigh tiredly, rubbing my temples. "I don't know." I groan. "This is friggin' annoying."

Ever since we discovered the 'special' trait of my new Exsphere, all three of us have been arguing as to how such a thing could be possible. We've been interrupted a few times from random monster fights, but otherwise, it's pretty much the only topic we've been on.

It's been four hours now.

I'm getting pretty damn sick of talking about this.

Also, we haven't really stopped walking since that last long break that we took, so…I've pretty much lost all feeling in my feet, and…almost half of it in my legs. I wish it could be _all_ feeling, because they ache _so_ fucking bad right now.

And I'm getting a hand cramp as well, because I'm _still_ carrying that gun.

I sigh again, turning to the two boys. "Look, can we just…stop talking about this right now? We've been talking for _hours_. It's getting late."

In fact, it _is_ getting quite late. The sun started going down a while ago (I'm too tired to figure out how long), and right now, there's a pretty magnificent sunset going on. There are some clouds coming out right now too, so the sky looks almost like a painting.

I would appreciate it more, but I'm so damn tired, I'm just looking at those clouds and worrying that we'll still be outside if it starts raining.

I can't see Lloyd's expression through the fading light, but I'm pretty sure he's rolling his eyes. "Fine. We'll talk about this later."

Genis shrugs in agreement, and Noishe gives a big yawn.

"Right." I place my hands on my hips, which is kind of weird, as I'm still walking. "So, now what? Are we just going to keep walking until it gets dark?"

Well, it already _is_ dark, but…that's not the point.

"I…don't really know." Lloyd replies after a bit, reaching a hand up to scratch the back of his head. "We didn't really bring any camping supplies…"

"Brilliant." I take my hands off my hips and cross my arms. "I guess we're sleeping on the ground, then."

I'm about to say something else then, but something grabs my attention in the fading light, causing me to stop in my tracks.

I drop my arms, squinting through the darkness. "…the heck is that?"

"Huh?" Lloyd stops ahead of me, and looks around at my remark. "The heck is what?"

"I don't see anything." Genis chimes in, also stopping and looking around.

"_That_." I reply, pointing at the object. "Over there."

The thing that has grabbed my attention is…well, I can't really say. I can't see it too well in the growing darkness. I _can_ say that it's big, as…it's poking through the tree tops. Big and round and…yeah.

With me pointing the mystery thing out, the boys are finally able to see it, and I can tell they're just as confused as I am.

"Is that a house or something?" Genis asks, sounding…just as confused as I feel.

"Iiiii don't think so, Genis." I reply, squinting at the object to see it better. 'It looks too…round."

"Hey, look." Lloyd speaks up, pointing towards the object. "There's smoke."

"Really?" I turn my gaze to the area he's pointing at, and after a bit, I see what he's talking about- a thin stream of smoke just to the right of the object. "Hmm…maybe someone's over there."

I can't help but find this familiar somehow…like a strange sense of déjà vu.

Lloyd turns to Genis and I. "Hey, if there's people over there…maybe we should check it out?"

"What?" I stare at the brunette. "Why?"

He shrugs. "I don't know…maybe they'll let us stay with them?" He looks up. "It's better than staying out here all night."

"…Good point." I cross my arms again. "It's worth a shot at least."

As we begin walking towards the mystery area, the sun fully disappears from the sky. So, by the time we actually make our way there, it's completely dark, making it a bit hard to see. Plus, all those clouds I was talking about earlier covered up the possible light source from the moon and stars, so…it was pretty much pitch black.

It doesn't help that where we're headed is in the middle of a bunch of trees. Darkness plus trees equals…bad.

I lost count of how many times I tripped over tree roots.

Finally, Genis spots some light coming through the trees, and we rush towards it…at least, we try to, anyway. You get the point.

When we finally make it towards the light, we're surprised to find ourselves in a clearing. Even more surprising is what we find. In the clearing, there's a giant carriage near a batch of trees…and I mean _giant_. One of the wheels on that thing is taller than I am, and I'm 5'6".

There's a large tarp hanging above the ground next to the carriage, supported by some poles, and underneath the tarp is a variety of boxes and chests. Nearby is the fire we spotted, and standing next to the fire is a man in a light blue coat.

Oooh, _now_ I remember this.

The man spots us in no time, and in the light of the fire, he looks startled. "Who is it?"

Oop, wait, I was mistaken. Man is actually a woman. I didn't notice that in the game.

"Ah, sorry." Lloyd calls out, holding his hands out in front of him. "We were just wondering who was here."

"We, uh, saw your fire over there." I add in, pointing in the direction we came from.

The woman relaxes a bit, and begins walking towards us. "I'm the only one here right now." She stops just a few feet in front of us. "Who are you? Are you on a pilgrimage?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Genis look towards the ground. "…We're…"

"Pilgrimage?" I see Lloyd think for a second, before nodding. "Hmm…yeah, something like that."

Wow, Lloyd. Way to sound suspicious.

"I see." The lady seems to buy it, and she smiles at us. "That's quite admirable for someone so young." She motions towards the little area she's set up. "Please, feel free to rest here."

Well, _that_ was easy. I guess some people are a little more trusting in this world.

"Thank you." Genis says, being the polite one out of all of us.

"It's no trouble." The woman replies, holding her hand out in a "no problem" gesture. Dropping the hand, she continues to speak. "My name is Sarah. I'm a member of this caravan." She turns then, motioning towards us. "Follow me. I'll show you where you can sleep."

Sarah quickly leads us towards the large carriage, to a ladder hanging odd the back. She then climbs up the ladder, opening a small hatch door at the top and crawling inside.

…We all kind of look at each other in confusion for a second, before Lloyd makes the first move, climbing up the ladder after Sarah and disappearing into the carriage. Genis follows him, leaving me by myself for a moment at the bottom of the ladder.

When I finally work up the nerve to get on the ladder, it takes me a little bit to actually get up it all the way. I've…never actually gone up a ladder before, so I have at least two heart attacks trying to get up to the top. When I finally do, I crawl through the hatch door with a little bit of difficulty.

That's because I was distracted by what the inside of the caravan looked like.

Since the caravan was pretty huge, you'd expect the inside to be big too, right? Well, it is. But it wasn't only thing about the inside that caught my attention. The inside isn't filled with crates and boxes like I expected it to be, but with an assortment of pillows, blankets, and rugs over wooden floors, the whole inside lit by oil lanterns attached to the walls. A multitude of brightly colored fabrics hung from the ceiling like large sails, and the rugs on the floor are laid out in criss-crossing patterns of color. It makes the whole area seem very…psychedelic.

Not only that, but there's these large, square nooks in the rounded out walls, some traveling all the way up to the ceiling, accessible by rope ladders on the walls. When I look closer, I see they're filled with large, colorful pillows and blankets, which makes me realize they're some sort of sleeping nooks.

"Whoa…" I exhale, finally standing from my position on the ground and keeping my eyes on my surroundings. Apparently, I'm not the only one who's amazed by this, as Lloyd and Genis are gawking around with me.

"This place is _amazing_." Lloyd says, sounding amazed as he stares up at the ceiling. I would laugh at how funny he looks as he stares, but I'm pretty distracted myself. For a girl who runs with a caravan, Sarah has a pretty nice place.

Speaking of which, where is she?

A scuffling sound answers me, and I look down from the ceiling to see her emerging from behind some crates near the back wall, some of the few actually in here, and carrying some blankets in hand.

"It is quite nice, isn't it?" She says, navigating over some chests before making her way over to us. "This caravan travels around quite a lot, so my companions and I wanted to make sure we had a suitable living area." She smiles kind of sheepishly as she stands in front of us. "Although, I can't say the design of the place is very practical."

"I think it looks pretty cool." I tell her, taking another quick look around. A thought enters my head then, and I look back to Sarah. "So if this is where you guys sleep, where do you keep all your cargo?"

"Ah, that's in the lower half of the carriage." she replies, pointing to the floor. "Although, if we happen to have a surplus of cargo, we put some of it up here in the living quarters, as you can see." She points to the crates in the back.

She then hands each of us a blanket, continuing to speak. "You can take any of the sleeping nooks on the ground. We save those in case we have some travelers that need a place to stay." She places her hands on her hips then, smiling. "Feel free to find me outside if you need anything. Have a good sleep." With that, she goes around us and crawls though the hatch the door, leaving us alone.

"You know, for someone we just met, she's pretty nice." I say after a few moments, clutching the blanket I was given as I stare at the hatch door.

"Yeah, she is." Lloyd replies. He begins walking around, staring at the various decorations. "Still, can you _believe_ this place? It's so cool in here!"

"You can say that again." Genis joins in, still standing next to me. "There's so much stuff in here!" He sounds pretty awed, which…I've never heard in him before.

Then again, I've only really known him for about two days.

"Well, as much as I'd love to keep looking around at the ceiling and stuff," I begin, gaining the boy's attention, "I'm pretty tired, so…I'm gonna go to sleep." With that, I walk over to a nook in the corner, to the right of the hatch door. "I call this one."

Since the nook is on the ground and in the wall, I kind of have to scootch into it on my knees. Then I just kind of collapse onto the pillows with a content sigh. I have to sit up to take off my hoodie and belt, to make myself more comfortable, and I fold up my hoodie and put it next to me on the floor.

Since I still don't have a case for my glasses, I simply take them off and put them on top of my folded hoodie, along with my gun (which I was still carrying). While I do this, I see Lloyd and Genis take their own little sleeping nooks, doing…pretty much the same thing I'm doing.

Finally, the only thing I have to do is unfold the blanket, and I curl up on the pillows beneath me, pulling the blanket around my shoulders. "Night, guys!"

I hear their respective murmurs of 'Night." before I zone out, and even though there's no noise, it doesn't take me long to fall into a warm, deep sleep.

* * *

"_Hey, Lloyd."_

"_Hm? What's up, Genis?"_

"_How long do you think it'll take us to reach Triet?"_

"_Don't know. Hopefully we can get there by tomorrow…"_

"_Yeah…I just hope Colette is still there."_

"_I hope so. Otherwise we'll have to keep looking."_

"_Yeah. But, you know, I didn't expect Cassie to join us."_

"_I know. She's pretty weird, but it's cool of her to want to help us."_

"_Yep, she's pretty weird…"_

"_I'm still wondering about that Exsphere, though…I mean, have _you_ ever heard of an Exsphere that can let someone use magic?"_

"_Uh, no. I don't really know about Exspheres. At least, not as much as you do."_

"_Good point. Well, we're not gonna get anywhere just thinking about it."_

"_Yeah. 'Night, Lloyd."_

"'_Night."_

* * *

...I don't think I'm gonna be getting anymore sleep anytime soon.

I've been laying in my little nook for…possibly a few hours now? I'm still really tired, but because to the lack of noise in here, it's kind of hard for me to fall asleep. I think I might have said this already, but I just can't stand silence when I sleep.

It doesn't help that Lloyd snores.

I mean…he doesn't really snore that _loudly_. It's actually pretty quiet. But when you're _used_ to hearing a lot of noise when you sleep, and suddenly it's not there…you tend to concentrate on whatever noise _is_ present in the room.

So yeah. Lloyd snores.

I listen to Lloyd's nasal rumblings for a few more seconds , before I decide to finally muster up the energy to sit up and rub the sleep out of my eyes. Then I drop my hands, blink sharply a few times, and yawn, a little disgusted when I taste morning breath. I begin to try flattening down my morning hair for a second, but immediately give up when I feel how tangled it is.

Since I just woke up, and I'm a lazy butt, I just roll out of my little bed, ending up on my stomach in front of my stuff. I clumsily grab my glasses off my hoodie and put them on, then grab my hoodie, knocking my gun to the floor with a _clack._

Once I get myself arranged in a…sort of presentable way, I quietly make my way to the hatch door, so I don't wake up the sleeping boys. I can't see where Lloyd it, but Genis is relatively close to where I was sleeping, so I'm able to make him out. I snort a little bit when I see he's completely buried himself in his blanket, so I can only just barely see his hair. Funny, my little sister sleeps just like that…

Rolling my eyes, I slowly open the hatch door, positioning myself in a way so that I block any light that might come seeping in. Not too surprisingly, it's early out, so not much light comes in. Still, I make my way out as quickly as possible, closing the door again as I begin to descend the ladder.

As I hit the ground, I find that I'm not the only one awake. Over by the hanging tarp, I hear some scuffling and shifting noises. I peer around the carriage as I walk, and after a bit, I see Sarah rearranging some of the crates she had stacked under there last night. Also, closer to the carriage, Noishe is laying on the ground, watching Sarah work. Noishe turns his head towards me, and give me a small 'yip' as a greeting. Sarah hears the large dog's yip, and begins to look around.

"Oh, hello!" she says, finally noticing me past the crate she's currently carrying. With a grunt, she places it on top of a larger box, dusts off her hands, and turns back to me. "You're up early."

I shrug. "Couldn't sleep." I point a thumb towards the carriage. "One of my friends, uh…snores."

Sarah 'ah's with a nod. "I know how that is. My husband does the same thing." She then turns around and picks up another crate. "Well, since you're awake, would it be too much to ask if you could help me with these crates?" She lifts the next crate with an 'oof', and turns back to me. "It's…a little difficult for just one person."

"Oh, sure." I reply, heading over to the cluster of wooden boxes. I pick a small crate up, and I'm a bit surprised at how heavy it is. "Ugh…where do you want this?"

"Just put it by that stack over there." She points to a stack of large boxes near the carriage, and I head over to it.

As I place the box on top of a large crate, I look over to Sarah. "So, if this is a caravan, shouldn't there be more people here?" I head back over to the stack of crates. "And what the heck pulls this giant thing? I mean…that carriage is _huge_."

"Ah, yes, well…" Sarah begins to rearrange some of the chests. "The rest of my companions are scouting the area. Our main purpose is to transport goods from town to town, so we like to see if there are any potential buyers in the area. They took our mounts with them, so right now, the carriage is pretty much stranded." She picks up a rather small chest, looking it over. "Right now, they're most likely in Iselia."

I feel my heart drop. "Oh…" After a few seconds, I pick up another crate. "Well…sorry to be a downer, but…they're going to be disappointed." I place the crate with the pile. "Iselia was just attacked by Desians."

I jump when I hear a crashing sound, and I turn around to see Sarah looking stunned, the chest she was just holding on the ground.

"Oh dear…" she replies, her voice shaking. "Are…are you sure?"

After a moment, I nod. "Yes…my friends and I were there when they attacked." I remember what we told Sarah yesterday, and add on to my sentence. "That's why we decided to go on a pilgrimage…to help the Chosen on her journey of world regeneration in any way we can."

"I…see." Still looking shaken, she placed a hand on her chest. "That's quite admirable for you young ones…I hope your journey goes well."

I look away awkwardly. "Um…thank you."

I'll be honest - I feel kind of bad lying to her, since she helped us out and everything, but…I can't just tell her that Iselia was attacked because of Lloyd and Genis. She might not trust us then.

"Well." Sarah says after a while, looking at me. "If there's anything I can do to help you, feel free to ask." She smiles. "It's the least I can do."

"Oh, no, you don't-" I start, but then I get an idea. "…Actually, maybe you can…help me with something?"

She looks at me curiously, and I continue. "You said that you carry goods around from town to town, right?"

"Why, yes." Sarah replies, still looking at me curiously. "Why do you ask?"

I think I'm about to solve one of my problems.

I smile at her, pointing to my obviously bare feet.

"You wouldn't happen to have any shoes, would you?"

* * *

"Uh…what are you wearing?"

It's been a couple of hours since my talk with Sarah, and the sun began to rise fully about a half-hour ago. Since then, I've been busy with some stuff. Such as helping Sarah finish moving all her boxes, getting some breakfast (some nice oatmeal with raisins), and…obtaining some goddamn shoes.

While Lloyd and Genis were still sleeping, Sarah let me snoop around the lower area of the carriage so I could find me some footwear. It took me a little bit, but I managed to find myself something I liked - a pair of brown, cloth-like boots with criss-crossing belts, and two flaps on the top of the boots covered in…what I think is some type of monster fur. I don't really care what it is, though, they looked cool.

On another note, I also managed to find a sort of holster similar to a gun holster, and when I tested it out, my gun fit almost perfectly into it. So now, I don't have to carry around my gun anymore!

However, my new boots aren't what Lloyd was asking me about.

When I was searching for shoes in the lower compartment, I happened to stumble on a box of some plain fabrics and clothing. One piece in particular was a very long piece of black fabric, made of some sort of thick material…like something for clothing. When I asked Sarah about it, she said it was a type of scarf. I thought it looked interesting, so I decided to take it along with the boots, which, thankfully, Sarah didn't mind.

However, I kind of had a problem putting it on the normal way…it was just too long. So, I decided to improvise and tie it around my neck like a bandana, so it wouldn't get in the way. Since the cloth was pretty thick, tying it like that had an interesting effect on the scarf, making the ends kind of…float off to the side.

I think it's pretty interesting.

Back to the present, I spin around once to show off my new accessory. "What do you think of my new scarf?" I stop, pointing my fingers towards my neck. "I decided to tie it like a bandana. Y'know, to make it interesting." I give a big grin, pointing towards my feet. "And look! I got shoes! No more sore and bleeding feet for me!"

"That's, uh…great." Lloyd tells me, looking just a bit weirded out.

"You know, you look kind of like Lloyd with that thing." Genis remarks, pointing at my scarf.

I blink, and turn my head to look at the scarf…which actually _does_ look similar to Lloyd's ribbons, now that I think about it.

"Huh. I guess I do." I pout slightly, crossing my arms. "Now I feel unoriginal."

I brush it off quickly, and I grin at them again. "Oh! Before I forget, I should give you guys these." I turn around and run over to the collection of boxes still under the tarp, grabbing what Sarah gave me a while ago. Carrying the heavy objects in my arms, I run back over to the boys.

"Lookit!" I say when I reach them again. "Sarah noticed we didn't have any supplies, so she decided to give us some stuff!"

What I'm holding in my arms, currently, are three medium sized backpacks, each one filled with an assortment of items that I helped pick out. However, only the one I decided to have is completely full, because I knew Lloyd and Genis probably had some stuff they wanted to put in.

Despite this, each bag has some extra food and healing items inside, along with some needed camping supplies in smaller sacks. Like sleeping bags and water canteens.

I'm actually kind of relieved that Sarah decided to give us these, because the only kind of luggage we had on us before coming out here was the bag that Dirk had given to Lloyd. And honestly…that's not enough for three people. And a giant dog.

To relieve the weight in my arms, I hand Lloyd and Genis their respective bags, keeping a hold on my own. I sling that bag over my back, and I have to fumble with the strap for a second, because mine's one of those weird straps that goes across your chest. The other two just have regular two-strap bags, so they don't have to deal with that.

"So she just decided to give these to us?" Lloyd asks, after slinging his bag onto his shoulder.

"Well,she was _going_ to," I start, fixing my hair from where it was trapped behind the pack. "But, y'know…Sarah already let us stay the night free of charge, and gave me these boots for free. So I decided to pay her with some of the money I got from that Desian."

To be exact, I gave her about 150 gald for the bags, fifty for each one. She wouldn't go any higher than that, which I'm actually kind of relieved about. I only had about 600 gald to start with, so now I'm down to 450...which, in Symphonia-land, isn't much.

"I'm sorry I can't do much more to help you on your journey." I turn to see Sarah walking towards us, hands behind her back. "I know it's tough, but you mustn't get discouraged."

"Thank you for all your help." I tell her, as sincerely as I can manage. For added measure, I give her a short bow. I then turn back to the boys. "We should get going."

"Uh-right." Lloyd replies. He calls for Noishe to come over, then turns back to Sarah. "Thanks a lot."

As we walk away, Sarah waves at us from the carriage. "Take care! I'm sure we'll meet again!"

We all wave back at her, Noishe giving a loud bark, and then disappear into the trees. It feels strange for me to be walking in shoes again after going so long without them, but I'm glad that I won't be getting mutilated anymore by the path.

I have a feeling things will be a bit easier now.

* * *

"_Say, Genis."_

"_What, Lloyd?"_

"_Why do Desians exist? If it weren't for them, everyone would be able to live happy lives."_

"_I wonder…would everyone really be able to live happily?"_

"…_?"_

"_Ah, sorry. That's right, Desians are the cause of everything that's wrong."_

"_Well, duh! Of course!"_

"…_Yeah. Of course."_

(God dammit Lloyd…)

* * *

I've said this already, but I think I need to say it again.

This place looks totally different from in the game.

Only a few hours after leaving behind Nova's Caravan, we finally made it to the House of Salvation near the Triet Desert. That little feat was achieved much easier due to the fact that we didn't have to constantly stop because of my feet (thank you awesome boots). The only time we had to stop was when Dirk's letter to Lloyd fell out of his bag, and Noishe brought it back out.

Actually, not stopping was actually the only downside to getting here so fast. My feet are sore from all that walking…plus these boots are still new, so they've been rubbing into the back of my heels.

But anyways, House of Salvation.

It's different.

Actually, I should have expected this. The Houses of Salvation are supposed to be places of refuge for travelers, right? And the way they looked in the game were - let's face it - tiny. There was just that alter place and an attic full of beds.

Not here.

The House of Salvation we're at is fairly big. The general build of the place is still about the same, but there's a lot more to the design, such as large additions attached to the bottom floor. I'm guessing they could be extra bedrooms or a kitchen, since these placed probably get a lot of travelers.

There's also some sort of paddock area to the right of the front doors of the building, but nothing's over there right now. Too bad, because…that paddock is friggin' HUGE. I wanna know if this world has different animals or something, because that thing is waaaaay to big for just horses.

Right now, I'm standing…well, more like leaning, on a line of fences with Noishe while Lloyd and Genis ask around about Colette. I'm not too bothered being by myself right now - I'm really interested in the activity going on around me. There are quite a few travelers walking around, some in groups, and some by themselves. A lot of them simply converse with one another, while others go inside the House of Salvation. There are also some travelers standing around and looking at their maps, so I'm assuming they're plotting out where they're going next.

Surprisingly, not many people are coming from the direction of the desert…and the ones I have seen look very weird. They're dressed in some really weird garments…I can't tell exactly what they're used for, as none of them have gotten close enough for me to get a good look at them.

"What do you think about all this, Noishe?" I say absently, turning towards where Noishe is standing…or at least, where he _was_ standing. He's not there anymore. I look around for a second, before finally seeing him standing near the paddock…not looking anywhere in my direction.

Wow, way to make me feel loved, Noishe.

"Hey, Cassie!" I turn at the sound of my name being called, and I see Genis standing by the doors of the House, waving for me to come towards him. When I get to him, he points towards the doors. "Come inside. We need to talk about how we're getting to Triet."

"Yeah, sure." I reply. He opens the doors, and I follow him inside the building.

The lobby area of the House is similar to how I remember it from the game - a large room with sun filtering in from lattice windows, a decorated ceiling, and priests hanging around some sort of altar with a statue. But, as I thought, there _are_ a few additions to the place, such as doorways leading to the additional rooms I saw outside, and a large archway leading to some sort of living area, with couches and a fireplace. Genis leads me towards this area, and once we get inside, I notice Lloyd standing next to a man in a traveler's garb.

Lloyd holds a hand up in greeting, but doesn't do much more than that. I wave back at him, then turn to the man next to him, who's looking us over.

"Is this all of you?" We all nod at him, and a frown comes onto his face. "Hmm…a little young to be walking through the desert, aren't you?"

"Does it matter?" Lloyd asks, frowning. The man looks at him for a minute, expression stoic, before slowly shaking his head.

"I suppose not. After all, this world is pretty backwards nowadays…" He puts his hands on his hips. "Well. Since you _are_ going through the desert, you're going to need some gear if you're going to make it to Triet in one piece. Just follow me." He begins to walk back towards the lobby area, motioning for us to follow. We wait a second, looking at each other, before trailing after him.

To be honest, I actually don't see the big deal behind going through a desert. I mean…I've never been in a desert like the Triet one, but I _have_ gone through a desert before, and I've been in desert areas quite often while visiting family back home.

How bad can it be?

* * *

The desert can't be _that_ bad, I said. It's no big _deal_, I said.

Oh, how I wish I would stop jinxing myself with my own mental trains of thought.

And fuck deserts, man.

Fuck deserts.

We've only been walking through here for maybe two hours, and I already feel like dropping dead in a sand dune. It's _hot_, it's _sandy_, and there are sandstorms blowing about every thirty minutes. Not to mention the friggin' monsters roaming through here - scorpions, those snakes called Sidewinders, and all sorts of other nasties. We've been ambushed at least three times now.

This gear we get of going through this place is a pain in the ass as well. Basically, it consists of a thick leather cloak, thick leather gloves, and goggles. The cloak and gloves are to help protect us from the sun, while the goggles protect our eyes from the sandstorms.

The cloak and gloves are incredibly hot to be in, and the goggles were too small to fit my glasses inside them. So I'm sweaty and have fuzzy vision.

Fuck deserts.

Thankfully, I'm not the only one who's having trouble. Genis and Lloyd are having the exact same problems as me. Poor Genis looks ready to fall over from the heat, and Lloyd's basically a zombie.

Don't even ask about Noishe.

"Dammit, this desert is _hot_." Lloyd finally gasps after a bit, hoarse sounding. He looks back at me (I'm lagging behind with poor Noishe). "How much…longer do we have to _walk_?"

I cough and spit some sand out of my mouth. "Let me check." I reply, sounding like a toad. I reach towards Noishe, who had unwillingly been carrying our bags (because we can't wear them with these cloaks on us), and start digging into mine. I've elected to carry our map after Lloyd dropped some of his stuff, so we have less chance of losing it. I pull the rolled up map out of my bag, along with my water canteen and the case that's holding my glasses.

I take a swig of water really quick, then pull off my goggles to put on my glasses. Lloyd and Genis are also taking a drink, so take the moment to pull open the map and look it over.

"Okay, so," I begin, gaining their attention, "the House of Salvation we were at was here." I take one hand away from the map to point at its location, and Lloyd grabs the other half before it can droop to the ground. "And Triet is here-" I point at Triet. "-and we've been walking for…about two hours, give or take." I look up at the sun, which is almost directly above us, indicating that it's around noon. "So I'm gonna take a guess and say that we're around here somewhere." I circle an area around halfway between the House and Triet.

I actually have no idea if I'm right or not. I'm very bad with maps.

"So we're about halfway there…" Genis pipes up, sounding exhausted. I nod at him, rolling back up the map to put it away.

"Yup. But we've still got a lot of walking to do." I shove the map back into my bag, along with my canteen. "Lucky us."

Lloyd groans in protest. "We'll be _dead_ by then." His head droops. "Jeez, why does this desert need to be so _big_…and _hot_?"

"It's a _desert_, Lloyd." I tell him, slipping my glasses off at the same time. "It's supposed to be big. And hot." I pull my goggles back on. "Also, there's a sandstorm coming up right behind you."

Sure enough, a few moments after I say this, we're swarmed by another massive sandstorm. Because of the goggles, none of the sand gets in our eyes, but it's still incredibly hard to see. And now we're getting sand all over us…and our sweat.

Fuuuuuuck deserts.

* * *

…I don't have much to say here this time.

I guess I can say that I've already started on the next chapter! So I should have it out a bit sooner than this one. That's something.

**NEXT TIME: Renegade Base**


	9. Renegade Base

HEY REMEMBER ME

I'M THE AUTHOR THAT ALWAYS TAKES FOREVER TO UPDATE WWEH

So yeah. Finally pull this chapter out of the depths of my computer after about four months. Took me a fucking while. You'd _think_ I'd be able to crank out at least _a few chapters_ with a whole two months of summer vacation.

BUT NOPE

PROCRASTINATION WINS AGAIN LOL

At least this chapter has some plot development. :I

Revieeeeeeews.

Noa748

Okay, first off:

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING READING MY FIC YOU ARE ONE OF MY FAVORITE AUTHORS ON THIS SITE OMFG AJSKGNFDJNHD

*fan girl screech*

Second off:

Thank you for all your awesome compliments and advice! It's really amazing to be complimented by someone whose stories I really enjoy.

And I actually did draw some inspiration from TWC. However, I _will_ be trying to make my own plot with this, because I really don't want to steal ideas from that amazing piece of work. Hopefully it doesn't seem like I am. DX

Chang-Tong

I've found that a lot of people forget about Nova. I have no idea why – I really like him. XD

And I think it would be kind of unfair if they just took the stuff without giving him _something_. He _did_ let them stay the night for free, after all.

And most people tend to think of me as 'weird' when they meet me. :]

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own the giant Gamecube in the Renegade Base…but I wish I did.**

* * *

**Chapter 8: Renegade Base**

"_Urgh! Why is it so hot?!"_

"_According to legend, somewhere in this area is a gate that leads to Efreet…the heat in this area is due to Efreet's influence."_

"_A gate that leads to Efreet? Could that be…?"_

"_Yeah, I'm sure that's the seal that Colette's heading for."_

"_Ah! Then that means Colette's somewhere in this area! Man, you know a lot of stuff!"_

"_That's because I don't sleep in class like you do."_

* * *

Thank all that is good in the world for Triet.

After…quite a few more hours of walking, we finally made out the desert town in the distance. Most likely, we would have all jumped up in sheer joy at the sight, but we were exhausted, so…we just did a collective groan of tired relief.

It still took us a bit to actually reach the entrance of the town, so we still had to endure a bit more of the desert. But I can guarantee we moved quite a bit faster at the thought of finally getting into town.

When we finally made it there, I was surprised to see some guards in desert gear standing in front of the entrance. They talked with us for a bit about what our business was here, but I guess they could see that we weren't there to do any harm. And the fact we were half-dead. So they let us in pretty quickly.

I take off my goggles as we begin to walk in, immediately replacing them with my glasses, grateful to have my vision back.

"I don't know about you guys…" I say as we walk through the entrance, "But I am _really_ glad to finally be here."

"You can say that again." Lloyd replies, sounding…well, tired. He's taken off the hood of his cloak, so I can see his hair is quite droopy and mussed up…at least, more than usual. Genis is in similar condition, except he doesn't even have enough energy to speak.

Poor guy.

We walk through the entrance to the town, and my eyes immediately zero in on the inn across the plaza. Without thinking twice, I begin to walk towards it, mind filled with images of having a cold shower and a bed. I'm stopped when something grabs onto my lowered hood.

The next thing I know, I'm being pulled down to a crouching position by Lloyd, who for some reason, is crouched behind an oblivious Noishe.

I look at him in confusion. "Whoa, hey, what's going on-"

"Shh!" I'm cut off by the brunette, who's suddenly very alert, peering past Noishe's back with a worried look. I glance at Genis, and when I see the same expression on his face, I get curious and take a peek at what's gotten them so riled up.

Oh shit.

Walking towards the plaza, from where I remember the oasis to be, is a group of four Desians.

How the frick did I forget about those guys?

Lloyd ducks back down, and he creeps towards Noishe's head, pointing at a paddock. "Over there. Quick."

Staying behind Noishe, we lead the big dog over to the paddock as inconspicuously as possible, ducking inside of it. Noishe immediately dunks his head into a water trough on the inside, splashing water to the ground. While he's occupied, we peek our heads over his back to see what the Desians are up to.

The group stops right at the entrance of the plaza, and even from here, we can hear what the leader of the group is saying.

"This is an order from Lord Forcystus!" He shouts to his companions, holding a whip aloft in his right hand. "A human named Lloyd is on the run with an Exsphere. His identification code is unknown. Form a cordon in all areas immediately!"

Another Desian with a whip speaks up. "What does this Lloyd look like, sir?"

"His likeness and description are on the wanted posters." the leader replies. "We're counting on you."

"Yes sir!"

With that, the three subordinates split up, running into different directions. The leader, however, heads over to a bulletin board next to the entrance of the inn. I see him slap something onto it, and then he walks away. I can tell that it's the wanted poster he just put up.

After a few seconds, the three of us finally stand from our place behind Noishe, staring in the direction of the leaving Desian.

"Man…" Lloyd begins, sounding serious, "Wanted posters and search parties. They're really serious."

"We need to hurry and find Colette." Genis replies, looking up at his friend.

The brunette looks down at his friend, eyebrow raised. "Hey, I thought we were looking for Colette to protect her…this is more like we're looking for her to get help."

"Does it really matter why we're looking for her?" Genis sighs. "You think too much when you don't have to!"

I raise an eyebrow at that, but otherwise remain quiet. I'd rather not get into the middle of this debate…

We leave Noishe behind in the pen, walking back out into the plaza. He doesn't take notice, because he's still got his head in the water trough. After a few seconds of looking around, we make our way over to the bulletin board, to take a look at the poster now up on the board.

"Is this the wanted poster?" Genis sounds skeptical as he stands in front of the paper, and as I get a good look, I see why.

"I…guess so." I reply, trying _desperately_ to hold back giggles. I remember Lloyd having a ridiculous looking picture of him on the poster, but…oh god, this thing is so horrible, it's stupid. It looks like a fucking five-year old drew it!

Okay, Cassie, you can do this. Just bite your lip until this is over. I know the poster is hideous and silly looking, but…just. Don't. Laugh.

Lloyd makes a face at the poster and leans in to look closer. "…Am I this ugly?"

…Okay, that did it.

I make a noise akin to a very loud 'pfffbll", gaining the boy's attention, and then double over laughing. I cover my mouth with one hand to stifle the noise, but it's still pretty loud.

"That…that thing is fucking _ridiculous!_" I gasp out, clutching my sides and giggling. I honestly cannot get out much more than that, because I'm laughing so hard. Lloyd's face…just…_priceless._

"Oh, come on!" Lloyd exclaims, sounding slightly offended. "It can't be _that_ bad, right?"

"It's good." Genis tells his friend, trying to reassure him. "They'll never find you with this."

He turns back to the poster for a second look. "…I think."

I snort, finally calming down a bit. "Yeah, ain't _that_ the truth." Still giggling a bit, I point to the offending poster. "That picture looks like it was drawn by a _five-year old_!"

"Whatever…" Lloyd mumbles, rolling his eyes at my antics.

After a few more seconds, I finally calm myself down, standing up straight. I definitely feel a lot better than I did just a couple of minutes ago…like I got a second wind from all that laughing.

I clear my throat to get out any more laughs in me. "Okay, so…" I cross my arms. "Now what?"

"Don't know." The brunette replies, shrugging. "I mean, we need to find Colette, but with all these Desians around…"

"Yeah, I see your point…" I bring a finger to my lips, thinking. "Maybe…we should split up. If we do that, it'd be harder for the Desians to spot us."

Genis nods at me. "That's probably a good idea."

I nod back, then clap my hands together. "Alright then! How about I go check out that marketplace area over there-" I point towards where I remember the shops to be, "-and you two go look by the oasis."

"Sounds good to me." Lloyd replies. "How about we meet back here after we finish looking?"

Genis and I nod in agreement, and it's settled. I pull my hood back over my head, so I won't be too noticeable, and I see Lloyd and Genis follow my example. After that, I begin to walk towards the shops, waving to the two as I leave.

I wonder how long this'll take…

* * *

This marketplace is WAY bigger than I remember.

It's been maybe around fifteen minutes since I've started looking around, and I'm just…completely amazed at how much energy is packed into this area. I keep hearing shouts of people calling out their wares, and the amount of people bustling around in the place is overwhelming.

I guess since this is the only town for miles in this desert, supplies are a must have.

A couple of times, I've spotted a Desian or two in the crowds, but I was able to give them a wide berth without too much trouble. At one point, I stopped to look at a house that was demolished, most likely by Desians, and another that had a huge hole in the front wall…a hole that looked suspiciously like everyone's favorite Chosen.

How the fuck she was able to fall through a thick, hard wall, I will never know.

After a few more minutes of being shoved and tripped into by busy shoppers, I find myself in front of some stalls. I take a second to wipe some of the sweat off my face before looking at the sign of the closets stall to me.

"HEAT STORM"

Blinking at the large lettering, I look to see what the place is selling, and I'm surprised to find weapons sitting all around the stall area.

Oh yeah, Heat Storm was the weapon shop here…oooooh, I have an idea!

Suddenly very alert, I walk closer to the stall, and stand behind the person currently talking to the stall owner, a large, tan man with a bushy beard.

Funny, I remember the stall owner in the game to be this little kid…of course, this scenario actually makes a lot more sense.

In my moment of thinking, I don't notice the shopper leave, and I immediately step up to the stall. "Um, excuse me…"

"Ah, hello!" The shop owner says in a booming voice, noticing me. "Welcome to Heat Storm! How can I help you?"

I'm thrown off a bit by the guy's booming voice, but shake it off pretty quickly. "I was wondering if you could give me information about a weapon…"

"Of course, young lady!" He replies, grinning at me from behind his beard. He puts his elbows on the counter of the stall, leaning in. "Tell me, what kind of weapon do you wish to know about?"

"Um…" I take a second to reach into my cloak, and pull out- you guessed it- the gun I got from the Desian at Iselia, placing it onto the counter. "This one."

The stall owner's face suddenly turns very serious. "I see…" Carefully, he picks the gun up off the counter, and looks it over in his hand. After a few seconds, he looks back at me, and I see a bit of suspicion in his eyes. "Young lady, these weapons are mainly used by the Desians. How exactly did you get this?"

So this thing is mainly a Desian weapon?

"That makes a lot of sense…" I mumble to myself, looking off to the side. I notice the shop owner raise an eyebrow, so I elaborate. "I, uh, actually took this off a Desian who attacked me." I point to the gun. "I didn't really have any other weapon on me, so I decided to take it for myself."

The owner looks to me, surprised, and I see the look of suspicion change to one of sympathy. "Ah, I see…" He then closes his eyes, shrugs, and looks back at the pistol in his hands. "Well, a few mercenaries used these too, so I do know a bit about them."

"Great, then can you tell me about it?" I ask him, placing my hands on the counter. "Because I'm utterly clueless."

The man chuckles at me. "Of course. After all, I wouldn't be a good weapon salesman if I couldn't inform people about them, now would I?"

He leans against the counter then, showing me the weapon in his hand. "Now, this particular type of weapon is classified as a 'Mana Gun'. There are actually a few different versions, but this style is the most common." He points to the muzzle of the gun. "This little thing can intake the mana in the surrounding air, condense it, and fire it as a small, solid object, called a pellet."

Ah, that would explain the bullet I found when I accidentally fired the gun. Makes sense, really.

The salesman then holds a finger up. "Now, there are two essential components to a Mana Gun: the chamber, and the cartridge. Without those, this thing wouldn't be of much use."

"Well, where are those?" I ask him, now looking at the gun curiously. I wonder if one of those things is that blue square…thing on the top?

"Well, the chamber is located here, in the handle. You can see it sticking out." He taps a finger onto the little raised portion on the bottom of the handle. "The chamber is what takes in the mana. The more it takes in, the stronger the pellet." He grins at me. "The amount of mana the gun takes in depends on the chamber, so it's able to be changed. I'll show you how."

I watch closely as he places his thumb on what I thought was the hammer of the gun. He presses on it, and I'm surprised to see it slide inside the gun. He then pulls the trigger, startling me at first, but then I'm amazed to see a grey, slightly curved rectangle pop out of the bottom of the handle.

The salesman catches it, showing it to me. "There, see? That's the chamber." He hands it to me to look over, and I'm surprised by what I see. All around the rectangle are shallow grooves, moving in a strange pattern. At the top is a circular hole, and when I look inside, I see small, intricate machinery that I…really can't describe. Whatever it's supposed to do, it looks complicated.

I look back to the salesman, and he points at the blue box thing I mentioned earlier.

"This little thing here is the cartridge." He looks me in the eye. "This solidifies the mana and turns it into a pellet. But, depending on the type of cartridge, it can also give the pellet the attributes of an element." The salesman taps the box. "Right now, it looks like you have a water element attached. It works the same way at the chamber, too: you can change them out at any time."

He then clicks the hammer on the gun twice, and the cartridge pops up with a small 'click'. He pushes it back, then looks at me.

"That's…pretty cool." I remark, looking at the gun in a new light. I didn't even know there was this kind of technology here…then again, this _is_ a Desian weapon. They're pretty advanced, technology wise.

The salesman suddenly gets a far-off look, putting down the pistol. "Hmm…you know, now that I think about it…" He turns around in the stall and begins to rummage around. "I think I might have something here that'll interest you."

It doesn't take him long to find whatever he's looking for, and he turns back to me, his hand enveloped around something. When he leans back against the counter, he shows me what he has – a shiny stick of metal that, after a few seconds, I recognize as another Mana Chamber.

"What do you think?" he asks me, a strange glint in his eyes. "You can make that weapon of yours even stronger with this little beauty."

"Really?" That could really help me out here… "How much do you want for it?"

He flashes a toothy grin at me. "Well, considering its brand-spanking new…how about three-hundred and fifty?"

Oh jeez. That's more than half of the Gald I have left. I can't just spend all that for some new equipment…ooh, idea!

"Um…" I mumble, messing around with my gun like the salesman just did. After a few seconds, I manage to pop out the chamber currently in the gun, and hold it out. "How much if I give you this?"

The salesman stares at the cartridge for a bit, giving a low 'hmmm' of thought. Then he nods, and looks back towards me. "For that, I'll lower the price to one-fifty."

"Deal." With that, I give the chamber to the salesman, along with the amount of gald requested. With a grin, the man hands me the new chamber, which I click into the gun.

"Nice doing business with you."

* * *

Thirty minutes and an immensely lighter wallet later, I'm feeling much happier about today.

I ended up walking from stall-to-stall after my encounter with the weapons salesman, because I got sucked into the massive crowd again. And because of me walking from stall-to-stall, I saw a lot of stuff for sale. And unfortunately, a lot of it was stuff that I could do with in this world.

My trip to the market ended with me getting a pair of p.j's, some more healing stuff (including Apple Gels and all that good stuff), some neato pencils, a small journal and a sketchbook. The pencils, sketchbook and journal might have been unnecessary, but if I have to be stuck in an unfamiliar world, I at least want something that can keep me from going insane.

I also got this little chest from a junk stall, with a padlock and key included. Seems kind of useless, but I figured it'd be a good place to put my cell phone and MP3. It's better than just keeping them in my pocket, where anyone can find them.

That box is now at the bottom of my bag, which is now _completely_ stuffed with all of the other goodies I got from the stalls, along with what I got from Nova. My money pouch, however, is now considerably lighter. I only have a few coins left from my little spending spree.

I fiddle around with my gloves as I make my way back towards to plaza, avoiding running into random people along the way. I'm keeping my hood down at the moment because 1: There aren't any Desians around, and 2: It's hot as all hell. Even without the hood, though, it's still friggin' hot. My hair is sticking to my face from all the sweat.

Maybe I should have taken off my hoodie along with the scarf…

Suddenly, I notice something that causes me to slow down, and then makes me stop. I wonder what it is for a minute before I'm able to pin it down.

Silence.

All the people around me are gone.

I look around in confusion. I've found myself somewhere between the area of the plaza and the marketplace. All the people that were in the market place are gone, leaving nothing but blowing sand in the emptiness. Where'd everyone go?

"AGH!"

The sudden scream causes me to jump, and I look towards its direction just in time to see a figure fall towards the ground near the city's entrance.

Oh shit. I remember now.

I hear an unintelligible shout from the figure's direction, and I just barely manage to duck behind a nearby exposed wall before more figures come into view. I can't see them too well from this distance, but I already know who they are.

Renegades.

Peering around the small portion of wall, I see two of the Renegades hoist the unconscious Lloyd up, and I just barely manage to hear them talking to Genis, although I'm too far away to hear what exactly they're saying. I make out Genis' voice, sounding very frightened, and then faint footsteps, which disappear very quickly.

I wait a few seconds after they leave, then slowly move away from my hiding place, still staring at the entrance of the city. I then speed over to the entrance, and stop just in time to see a group of figures disappear behind a couple of dunes in the distance.

"…Shit." I murmur, running a gloved hand through my sweaty bangs. I can't believe I forgot about the Renegades taking Lloyd. I mean, it's _kind of_ a major plot point of the game. How the fuck did I forget about it?!

I stand there for a few moments, berating myself in my head. I would have probably stood there longer, if it weren't for a big shape out of the corner of my eye distracting me.

Looks like Noishe finally recovered from our desert trek.

The big dog walks over from the paddock to be near where I'm standing, looking, somehow, slightly disgruntled. I keep forgetting that Noishe is a lot smarter than he looks.

I clear my throat to gain his attention. "So…" I begin, kind of nervous now that a giant dog is eyeballing me. "…Now what?"

Noishe growls ever so slightly at me.

"Oh, come on Noishe." I groan, rolling my eyes. "We can't just do nothing. If we're gonna help them, we're gonna have to work together."

The big dog stares at me. I can't tell what he's thinking about, so I just stand there awkwardly, trying not to break eye contact.

Finally, Noishe huffs, and jerks his big head towards the entrance of town. I look, then turn my head back towards him.

"So?" I ask, putting a hand on my hip. "Are we going after them or not?"

He nods.

"Alrighty." I remove my hand in order to cross my arms. "So how are we gonna get there? I can't just run across the desert with you. No offense, but…I'm not a giant dog."

I don't even know why I'm talking to Noishe like this. I know he's actually a lot smarter than he looks, but I can't be sure that he's getting all of what I'm saying.

But, I guess he does, because he suddenly turns to the side, lies down, and gives me a somewhat pointed look.

…_Oh._

"Um…" I mumble, staring at the big dog. "You…want me to ride you?"

He whines, which I assume means 'yes'.

Uh…yeah, okay. Riding Noishe. Kind of weird, but, I mean…Lloyd does it, right? It couldn't be too hard. I've ridden horses a few times before. Maybe it'll be just like that.

After a few moments of thought, I walk over to Noishe and climb on.

How hard can it be?

* * *

Note to self – never, ever, ever ever ever _EVER_ ride Noishe again.

EVER.

Because _even though_ he is as big as a fucking horse, and _even though_ I have ridden horses plenty of times before, he is MOST DEFINITELY _NOT_ the same thing

I curse myself under my breath as I cling to Noishe, as he leaps over ANOTHER sand dune, never slowing his breakneck pace. _Which_, by the way, he has kept up since I climbed on him in Triet, with me screaming my ass off on his back as he sped out into the desert.

I will admit, the wind produced from him running so fast has allowed me to cool off some in this desert heat. But I haven't been able to enjoy it, since I've had my face buried into Noishe's neck for most of this perilous ride. And I'm not too keen on lifting my face away from his neck, either, as I'm afraid I will be blown off his back if I do.

How the FUCK does Lloyd manage to do this all the damn time?!

"_Noiiiishe_!" I screech, spitting some of his fur out of my mouth in order to do so. "Can you _please _slow down?! I'm gonna fucking puke if you keep this up!"

I guess the big dog heard me, because he rapidly begins to slow down, until he's at a slow gallop. Luckily, it's at just the right pace so I can actually lift myself into a sitting position in his back, allowing me to take in the surroundings.

"Thanks." I say loudly, adjusting the goggles on my face with one hand. The other is keeping a firm death grip on his fur. Noishe replies with a quick bark, but I don't respond. I'm too busy looking around.

I guess all that sprinting Noishe did really paid off, because we're near one of the mountain-y parts of the desert. I vaguely remember the Renegade base being somewhere near some mountains, so that's a good sign.

I keep my eyes peeled, searching the desert dunes for any sign of the base. Finally, after a couple of minutes, I see something – a flash of blue beyond a rather high sand hill.

I direct Noishe towards its direction, and as we climb up the dune, the whole thing comes into view – a giant, circular shaped building the color of the sky.

…Okay, I thought the place looked stupid in the game, but here, it's even worse. I hope they weren't planning for secrecy when they built this base, because _sheesh. _

I'm almost thrown off Noishe when he abruptly stops in the middle of my thought process, throwing me forward into his fluffy neck. I recover quickly, sitting back up and giving the big dog a glare.

"Noishe, what was that abo-" I start, but the sentence dies on my tongue when I glance at the front of the base. That makes me be _real_ quiet.

It seems that the Renegades that took Lloyd and Genis got here just slightly before we did. At the front of the building, I can see three figures, one of which is wearing a desert cloak. I'm assuming that's Genis. Two Renegades stand in front of him, blocking the entrance. There's no sign of Lloyd, so I assume they already took him inside of the building.

I lean forward on Noishe, hoping to hear some of what the small group is saying. I guess I'm too far away, though, because all I get is the sound of Noishe's heavy breathing. I'm not able to see any of their expressions, either, as Genis's back is to me, and the Renegades are wearing those stupid helmets.

Finally, after a few minutes, the two Renegades retreat into the building, leaving Genis by himself. I see him noticeably slump as the doors close, and I lean back on Noishe, watching him closely.

"Okay, Noishe…" I say, still watching the half-elf down below, "Let's get down the-RRAUGH!"

I don't even get to finish my sentence before Noishe barrels forward, causing my to bury myself in his neck once again as he sprints down the side of the dune. I lift my head just enough to get Genis into my vision again, and I call out.

"GEENIIIIIIIS!" I screech, somehow managing to keep my voice steady as Noishe's movement rocks me back and forth. I manage to see the half-elf turn in our direction, and I just make out the shocked expression on his face before we're upon him.

The next thing I know, Noishe screeches to a halt, I'm flying through the air, and, suddenly, I have a face-full of sand.

"Eeughhah…" I say (or at least try to), pulling my head out of the sand. I pull myself up to my hands and knees, face burning, mouth watering, and call out to the big dog behind me. "Noishe, you _suck_."

"Cassie!"

"Yeah, hi Genis." I say thickly, then choke a bit as something rough goes down my throat. Still sputtering, I manage to get to my feet. "Uck, I think I swallowed some sand." My voice sounds raspy when I speak, and I spit into the sand to clear my mouth.

Genis is staring at me like I've grown a second head. "Wh-what are you _doing_ out here? And why were you-?"

"I saw you two get caught by those R-Desians." I tell him, remembering last second to say 'Desians'. I wipe at my face with a sleeve, to rid it of any lingering sand, then pull of my goggles, explaining the rest of my story to Genis.

"I wasn't just gonna let you guys get taken like that, so I decided I was gonna follow you. Noishe let me catch a ride with him." I motion to the big dog with my thumb, and he barks at the mention of his name. I take that small pause to put on my glasses, then pretend to look around. "Where's Lloyd?"

"Th-they took him inside." Genis replies, looking towards the massive building. "I convinced those Desians to let me go, so I could…get help."

I nod, also turning to face the base. "Well, he's not going to get out of there himself, that's for sure." I adopt a serious expression, to be more convincing. I already planned out what I was gonna do before Noishe and I got here, so now there's just the matter of explaining it to Genis.

I turn to face the half-elf. "Okay, Genis, take Noishe and get back to Triet. Try to find Colette and your sister, and if you can, bring them here."

He looks at me with a worried expression. "Wait, what are _you_ going to do?"

I grin slightly, turning to look at the building again. "I'm gonna go find Lloyd."

"_What?_" Genis looks slightly flabbergasted. "Y-you can't just go into a Desian base by yourself! What if they catch you?!"

My grin widens a bit, and I pull my gun out of my belt, showing it to him. "Well then, let's hope this thing is good for something."

The half-elf still looks unconvinced, but he doesn't argue further. Finally, he shakes his head and walks over to Noishe, climbing on to him like I did before. As Noishe stands, Genis looks to me.

"I'll be back as soon as I find them." He tells me. "Just…try and find him, okay?"

I give him a thumbs-up in reply. It's good enough for him, because He turns on Noishe, and they take off over the sand dune. I watch them until they disappear from sight, then turn once again to the unsightly building, nervousness gnawing at my stomach.

I think this is the second time that I've said I could handle something when I'm not even sure I can.

After a few moments, I take a deep breath, to steel myself. Then, gun at the ready, I walk forward and enter the Renegade Base.

* * *

"_Wow, Professor! There's a lot of stuff in this marketplace!"_

"_Yes, there is…oh, try to be careful, dear. We don't want a repeat of what happened to that man's house."_

"_Oh, yes. Sorry, Professor."_

"_It's alright. Hm…I think we have enough supplies now. Let's meet back with Kratos at the inn. We can discuss our plan of what to do at the Fire seal."_

"_Okay!"_

"…_Are you alright, Colette? You seem a bit distant."_

"_Oh, no, I'm alright, Professor Sage. I was just…wondering if Lloyd and Genis are doing okay."_

"_I'm sure they're quite alright, Colette. They can take care of themselves."_

"_Yes, I know…"_

"…_Well, worrying about them will get us nowhere. We're almost at the inn now, so let's just…hm?"_

"_What is it, Professor?"_

"_Oh, I'm sorry, Colette. I just…thought I saw something outside of the entrance…"_

"_Really? Where did…oh!"_

"_Is that…?"_

"_Noishe?!"_

* * *

Okay, the Renegade Base is now one of my favorite places at the moment.

Of course, that could be just due to the fact that this place has air conditioning.

I barely got three steps into the base before the door automatically shut behind me, and it was only then that I remembered that the doors didn't open from the inside. That's completely stupid, in my opinion. Who the hell comes up with a door that can only be opened from the outside?!

And then that didn't matter anymore, because I got distracted by the sudden cool air blasting me in the face. This, after being in a desert most of the day…basically felt like heaven.

I literally stood there for about thirty seconds before remembering I was in enemy territory.

Anyways, Renegade Base. I don't think I even need to say that it's different than what I remember, because I'm pretty sure I've said it about a dozen times by now. I'm pretty sure it just looked different to me because you only see it from a bird's eye view in the game.

But, looking at the place, it's still essentially the same in appearance. Same tech-y looking corridors and floors, same little robots (I think they're called Raybits…) floating around, and same…well, you get the gist.

I've been trying my best to maneuver around all the enemies in this place, while trying to find Lloyd at the same time. So far I've been doing okay, but there have been some close calls…the worst being me actually tripping over my cloak while I was in plain sight of a Raybit. Luckily for me, it was facing the other way.

I dart past another corridor, narrowly avoiding being seen by another Raybit. It's a good thing I like to sneak up on people all the time…otherwise I would have been caught already.

As I run around, I keep ahold of my mana gun in my right hand. I have no idea when I'll need to use it, so I'm keeping it out for now, just in case. While I hold it, I try to remember everything my dad has ever told me about holding a gun.

_Never grip the gun too tightly, or you could hurt yourself with the recoil…always keep your index finger straightened on the side of the gun. Never caress the trigger. When you're holding a gun, point the muzzle away from your body, and never point it at anyone else._

I thank my dad in my head as I duck into a dead-end corridor. I bet that knowledge on guns helps him out sometimes at his work. Although, that's never good when he actually DOES have to pull a gun on someone.

I jump slightly when a door automatically opens behind me, most likely because I was standing so close to it. Seeing an opportunity, I duck inside the doorway into the next room, the door closing again with a click. I take a quick moment to look around…and then I look again.

Holy shit…I'm in the Gamecube room!

I step further into the room, staring at the giant console in front of me. I notice that there are no enemies inside the room, so I click my gun back into its holster. To my left, I vaguely notice three electrical looking pillars, but I ignore them for now. Too distracted by the giant floating game console.

Wow, this Gamecube looks exactly like the one I have at home…same silver color.

"Heh…" I laugh quietly, smirking at the giant version of the game console. It's kind of the ironic that the one Earth-related object in this world is the same one that possibly brought me here. It's…like it's taunting me, or something.

Finally, I draw my attention away from the console to look at the rest of the large room. The Gamecube is centered in the middle of a hole, surrounded by a ring with a few colored round plates. Behind the machine, close to those pillars I mentioned, is some sort of small computer console.

I move over to it, looking it over. On a hunch, I touch the surface of the screen, and I'm a bit surprised when the screen lights up. I watch as words begin to appear on the screen.

_CYCLE LOCK SYSTEM. _

_THIS FLOOR MAKES USE OF THE CYCLE LOCK IS NECESSARY TO CHARGE THE LOCK-SHIFT PILLAR WITH VOLT-TYPE ELECTRICAL ENERGY IN ORDER TO TRAVEL TO EACH SECTION. THE PILLARS CORRESPOND TO THE 180 DEGREE, 90 DEGREE, AND 45 DEGREE PANELS ON THE FLOOR. ALIGN THE CENTER COLOR POINTS._

…Okaaaaay, I barely understood two words of that. I saw they mentioned 'Volt-type energy' in there, though. I'm guessing they're referring to the summon spirit.

I shift my gaze over to the pillars on my right side. Sadly, I remember that in order to make them _work_, I need the Sorcerer's Ring. Which, or course, I don't have. Lloyd has it, though, otherwise he wouldn't be able to get through the base.

I freeze when I hear a door whir open.

Regaining my composure quickly, I dive behind the weird computer console, hoping not to be seen. I try to keep absolutely still as I hear footsteps echo around the room.

"Aw man…the doors in this room are locked too."

…Wait a minute.

"Lloyd?" I blurt out. Agh crap, wasn't supposed to do that. Before he can get the wrong idea, I stand up from behind the small console.

I spot him a few feet away, on the other side of the Gamecube, still wearing his desert cloak. It's pretty apparent that I surprised him, because I see that he's gripping the hilts of his swords.

When he spots me, the surprise in his eyes turns to slight shock, and he drops his hands.

"Cassie?" he says, staring at me. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"Oh, y'know, just taking a stroll through a Desian base." I reply sarcastically, waving a hand in the air. "I came to rescue you, idiot."

His eyes narrow at my comment. Oops. Note to self: don't call Lloyd an idiot.

"How did you get here?" he asks me. "Is Genis with you?"

"Genis is just fine." I tell him. "He's heading back to Triet on Noishe. Noishe and I followed you guys here after you got caught."

He gives me a surprised look. "You rode on Noishe? Really?"

"Yeup." I give him an annoyed look. "_Never_ doing that again, by the way. I almost threw up all over your dog."

He just gives me a look, and he walks over to me. I see he's staring at those big pillars behind me. "So…what exactly is this room, anyways?"

"No idea." I lie, and I point to the computer console next to me. "But check this out. I think it's telling us what we're supposed to do here."

I touch the screen again to bring it to life, and Lloyd directs his attention towards it. It takes him longer than I did to read what's on the screen, and I see confusion seep into his face as he reads.

"…Ack." He finally says, shaking his head. "I don't understand this at all."

"Yyyeah, neither did I." I confess. "But I _think_ it's saying that we need to somehow…shock those pillars over there." I point to them really quick, then drop my hand. "Whatever that means."

"Oh, well…that shouldn't be too hard." I look over to the brunette, a mock look of surprise in my face. He lifts his right hand, and I see a small ring on his middle finger. "We could use the Sorcerer's Ring to hit those things."

"It can do that?" I ask, even though I know it already can. Just plaaaay along, Cassie.

He grins, then points his hand at the empty space in front of us. A second later, a small ball of sparks shoots out from the ring, surprising me. It hovers in the air for a few seconds, and then disappears.

Okay, I know that's supposed to happen, but that's still _really_ cool.

"See?" He grins at me. "We can use these weird sparks from the Sorcerer's ring to hit those pillars."

"Yeah, I get it." I tell him, and then turn to the pillars. "…Question is, which ones do we hit?"

"…Right." Lloyd replies, an agreeing tone in his voice. "Geez, this is gonna be tough."

I have to agree with him here. I remember from when I played this area that it took me a _while _before I could figure out this damn place. And a lot of that puzzle solving was from me hitting the pillars randomly in frustration.

And now I have to solve this puzzle _again_…with my only help being Lloyd.

Yup. We're gonna be here a while.

* * *

Aaaaaaand END CHAPTER.

This is a pretty damn long chapter, so if any of you guys see some errors that I've missed, _please_ let me know in a review. It really helps. :D

And this time, I WILL KICK MY ASS INTO GEAR TO GET THE NEXT CHAPTER UP AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. Hurr hurr.

**NEXT TIME: The Coffee Dude and Reunions**


	10. Reunions A-hoy

HI GUYS IM 18 AND I GRADUATE FROM HIGH SCHOOL TOMORROW

*FLIES INTO THE FUCKING SUN*

**DISCLAIMER: One does not simply own Tales of Symphonia.**

* * *

**Chapter 10: Reunions A-hoy**

"_Are you sure this the correct way, Genis?"_

"_Yeah, yeah, this is it. It should be just up ahead. …Raine, what if we don't get there in time?"_

"_Don't worry. I'm sure Lloyd will be fine."_

"_Okay…"_

"…_Genis, didn't I say not to worry?"_

"_I know, I know! It's just…Lloyd wouldn't even _be_ in this situation if it wasn't for me. This is my fault…"_

"_That may be. But we can't change the past, Genis. The best we can do right now is go find hom before he gets into any more trouble."_

"_Y-yeah…I hope they're alright."_

"…_They?"_

* * *

"Maybe if we try it this way…"

"We already did it that way. We'll have to try a way that we haven't done yet."

"But we've done this at least ten now! How many more can there be?!"

"I have _no_ idea. Ugh, this is so frustrating…"

"Urgh…okay, one more time-"

"OW! Lloyd, you just shocked me!"

"Sorry! …Wow, your hair looks funny like tha-"

"Shut it."

The swordsman pouts a bit, but doesn't say anything else, turning back to the three pillars in front of us. I, meanwhile, attempt to smooth back down my already messy hair, only half managing.

If you couldn't tell, Lloyd and I aren't doing so good with this friggin' Gamecube puzzle. Every time we hit a pillar, it only seems to make it worse for us. It should be simple – hit the pillar with the corresponding angle, unlock some doors, BOOM, you're where you need to go. But it's NOT. We just keep messing it up and ending up in rooms and hallways that take us nowhere!

So far, we've ended up in about three different hallways. FUCKING THREE HALLWAYS. There were some rooms we ended up unlocking too, including (for some strange reason) a storage room. I think the most interesting time was when we ended up in a room filled with Raybits.

I rub a leftover singe on my glove at the thought. If these people were going for a confusing, complicated base layout, they nailed it right on the head.

I take another glance at the Gamecube in the middle of the room. Ever since we started messing with the floor system, the console has been doing this weird…stretchy-thing. Like, it keeps stretching and shrinking into some weird shapes, going from flat as paper to a rectangular tower at points. It's…really weird to look at.

Currently, none of the plates are lit, but there's a greenish hue all around the room. It isn't as bright at the blue light was when we first started, but it's getting there. Of course, I can't remember which plate we have to light in order to get to where Yuan's office is.

"Okay, so…" I sigh, walking back over to Lloyd, who's standing in front of the central pillar. Like in the game, the pillars go in order for what their angles are – 45O for the bottom pillar, 90O for the center, and 180O for the top. Of course, there's the problem of hitting the right ones to get the plates to line up.

Which is what we've been totally _sucking_ at.

"Um…" I look back to the center of the room, eyeing the plates on the floor. Right now, the blue and green plates are closest to me, with the green plate pointing straight at the 90O pillar. Keeping my eyes on the floor, I walk around the massive contraption.

If you don't remember, there are some smaller plates in a ring surrounding the Gamecube, centered in a floor hollow. The colors correspond to the movable plates – green to the north of the room, blue to the east, and red to the south. So far, we've only gotten the blue plates to line up properly. We got close to the red, but we miscalculated the angle on that one (translation: Lloyd hit the wrong pillar on accident).

I stop in front of where the smaller green plate is. I look to the bigger green plate, then back to the smaller one.

These two are actually pretty close together…

After a minute, I look back to the pillars, thinking. Finally, I point to the pillar in the center. "Try hitting that one again."

"You sure?" Lloyd asks, looking at me.

"I…think so." I tell him, not entirely certain. He gives me a deadpan stare, and I shrug in response. "We won't know unless we try."

"…If you say so." He finally replies, before stepping in front of the pillar. Lifting his hand, he fires the Sorcerer's Ring, and the electric charge from it hits the pillar dead on.

A grating sound from behind us causes me to turn in place, to see the contraption in the room one again begin to turn. The plates circle until the green one lines up to the door behind me, and then stops with a click. The plate flashes with a bright light, and the green hue in the room suddenly turns sharper, making it seem like a green fog has covered the room.

I'm startled when a cracking noise starts up from above, and I look up to see small speakers attached to the ceiling. The crackling lets up after a moment, and a robotic female voice booms out.

_PASSAGE TO CONTROL ROOM OPEN._

…Okay then.

"That hasn't happened before…" Lloyd speaks up, and I turn to see him looking at the ceiling. He looks down at me after a bit. "You think it's important or something?"

"We won't know unless we look." I reply, shrugging. I walk over to the door the green plate is lined up with, motioning to the swordsman behind me. "C'mon."

Y'know, to be honest, I really can't remember where this 'control room' door will lead us to. It's been waaaaaay too long since I've been through here in the game, and I didn't really care about remembering in the first place. So I'm pretty tensed up as the door opens.

And what d'ya know, it's another hallway! AMAZING. Luckily, I don't see any enemies right off the bat, so that's already better than most of the other areas we've ended up in.

"Another hallway?" Lloyd groans from behind me, voicing my own thoughts. I shrug at him, then begin to walk forward, keeping an eye out. After a moment, I hear the swordsman begin to follow me.

We only make it to the first intersection before a door opens In front of us.

And a Renegade soldier steps out, just feet from us.

"Whoa!" Lloyd exclaims, and I freeze up. Of course, because he did that, the soldier notices us, and I see him tense before running in our direction.

"Hey you! What are you doing here?!"

"Uh-oh.", says Lloyd. Yeah, BIG uh-oh.

"_Run!"_, I screech in response, before immediately darting to the hallway to my left. I hear a yelp from Lloyd before the sound of his feet accompanies my own. Along with the sound of the Renegade chasing us.

Not really thinking, I keep running straight, even when I hear a door swish open behind me. For some reason, it sends little alarm bells going in my head, but I'd rather not stop and find out why that is. Unless I want to be face-to-face with an angry Renegade.

I skid to the left when an intersection opens up behind me, and quickly spot a door to my right. I run to it before the Renegade can turn the corner, diving through the entryway as the door swishes open and closed.

Immediately I'm plunged into almost complete darkness, the only sound being my own heavy breathing, and some sort of mechanical rumbling. I try to silence that as best as I can when I hear the footsteps of the Renegade soldier. I hold my breath when the footsteps are right outside the door, but release it when they keep going, until I can't hear them anymore.

Okay…dodged that bullet, I guess. Still can't help feel that something's…off, though. I know that you're not supposed to get caught by any Renegade soldiers, so why am I so-

Oh.

…Shit.

That door swish that I ignored was Lloyd going into Yuan's office, wasn't it.

I stand still for a few moments, in this unknown room in the dark, with the only noise being the machine somewhere in the room…before promptly smacking a hand against my forehead.

"I am such a fucking _dip._" I groan, rubbing the spot I just smacked. I think this is like…the third time today that I've forgotten an important plot point. And now, Lloyd is all by himself with fucking _Yuan_. I mean, I know that the rest of the group finds him before anything serious happens, but…_god_, I am idiotic.

_*BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*_

I jump about…maybe five feet in the air at the shrill noise that sudden pierces the air. It stops as soon as it starts, and leaves total silence in its wake. Which tells me that the noise came from…whatever machine is in this room.

Which tells me that I should probably find a light switch or something.

Using what little light is filtering in through the closed door, I make my way over to the wall surrounding the door…but I try not to get too close to it so it doesn't open. I don't really want to reveal myself to any guards waiting outside the door…if there _are_ any. I then begin the process of feeling around the wall for a possible lightswitch.

Finally, my gloved hand passes over something bulky protruding from the wall, just to the left of the door. It takes me a second, but I manage to flip the switch in the dark. I immediately have to shut my eyes against the light searing my eyes, but then blink them open so I can see where exactly I am…

…Um.

…A laundry room?

My face screws up in confusion at the sight of…what appears to be what I stated above. It actually seems to be more of a...laundry/storage room, than just a laundry room.

The room's actually pretty small, but there are some machines sitting against a wall just in front of me. I can't actually tell if they're washers or dryers, but…there are piles of clothes all over the place, along with some random boxes. So I'm just gonna say they are. Also, it smells like some sort of detergent in here.

I step further into the room, eyeing the piles of clothes scattered around the room. They all look about the same – Renegade uniforms – but I can see some other random items scattered around (I deftly avoid a random pair of boxers lying on the floor).

Some of the uniforms are in random piles, while others are neatly folded into stacks. Those are mainly on some shelves on the right wall. There are some shelves to the left also, but those are mainly filled with random boxes of things. Can't really tell what.

I have to stop when my foot slams right into one of the boxes laying on the floor. And possibly breaks a few of my toes. After a few seconds of hopping around and cussing under my breath, I look down at it. The box shifted a little when my foot hit it, so I can see something shining at me through the halfway folded lid flaps.

...

I kneel next to the box and open the flaps to see what's inside.

Sadly, it's actually not anything too interesting - just some mechanical bits to things I can't really identify. There's some gears, some bars, and...other things. I can't really describe then without sounding really idiotic. The box quickly loses my interest, because as I push the box away, I see a small bag on the floor next to a crumpled pair of pants.

Picking it up, I immedietly hear the jingling of some coins. Sure enough, when I open the pouch, I see a few coins at the bottom - probably some spare change that had been left behind. I do a little victory cheer, depositing the coins into my own money pouch.

…Wow. Lloyd and the others could be fighting Botta right now, and here I am in a storage room finding spare change.

I think I need to re-evaluate my life choices.

_Cli__ck, cl__ick, c__lic__k, click…_

I freeze at the sound of footsteps coming towards the door. As I hear then come even closer, I jump up and run over to the light switch, turning it off as quickly as I can. As the room is plunged into dark once again, I watch the door, listening to the person come even closer.

My heart begins to beat faster when the footsteps stop just outside the door. I hold my breath.

Please, please, pleeeeeaaaase don't come in here…

…..

"I know you're in there."

My heart just about stops at the muted voice that filters in through the door. I don't really know _what_ I was expecting, but…_HE_ was not it.

"Normally, I would take care of you on the spot for breaking in here…" he continues, and my heart begins to beat again, going even faster. "…But, I'm going to assume you're with Lloyd's group. Unfortunately, that means that I cannot deal with you just yet."

I guess that's because of Kratos.

"However, if I manage to find you on your own once more…don't think I won't hesitate to kill you."

Holy fucking shit.

There's a brief moment of silence, which is immediately followed by the footsteps resuming, heading down the hallway. I wait until they fade away completely before I let go of the breath I was holding in.

I didn't really think so in the game, but here, Yuan is one _scary_ motherfucker. And I didn't even SEE him.

As I try to get my heart rate to drop back down, I flip back on the light and head back towards my pile. I'm pretty sure it's about time for me to take my leave anyways.

Before I leave, I decide to go to pick up the box on the floor, to put it on one of the shelves. When I go to pick it up, however, I spot something else in it – a small glint in one of the corners of the box, a different color than the rest of the mechanical parts.

Curious, I rifle through the contents of the box once more, plucking the shiny thing out with one hand. I bring it up to my face, surprised by what I see.

A small box is perched between my gloved fingers, almost identical to the little blue one attached to my gun. A bright yellow substance fills the container, and there's an eerie glowing effect to it. Along with this, what appear to be jagged lines occasionally sweep through the fluid, almost completely white in color. Through the gloves, I can feel a faint vibration coming from the box.

...Even though this is actually really, _really_ awesome, I have to quirk an eyebrow at my find. Why the heck would someone leave a mana cartridge in their pockets? Also…why would the person who found it just throw it into a mechanical junk box? Maybe they weren't paying attention or something…

In the end, I just shrug. It's a free weapon upgrade, so…yay? I guess?

Eh, let's just hope it doesn't short circuit or something.

I stash my find in the back pouch of my belt, grab the box from the floor and stash it back onto the shelf before heading over to the door. It swishes open, and I hit the light switch one more time before exiting the room.

I move cautiously back down the hallway, keeping an eye out for any more Renegade soldiers. When I don't see any, I pick up the pace, making my way back towards where I know Yuan's office is.

When I make to go through the door, I stop when I hear voices inside. Luckily, the first voice I hear belongs to Raine, so I know I'll be okay. I still can't help but feel nervous at the knowledge that I'll be facing the entire group together for the first time, though.

Steeling myself, I wait one more moment, before stepping towards the door, and it opens with a mechanical swish.

"…pened the escape route just now. Let's -"

Whatever Raine was going to say is interrupted when they she notices me come into the doorway. Immediately I feel everyone's eyes on me, but honestly…I'm more distracted by the state of Yuan's office.

I remember from the game that the office space was still pretty much pristine after the group had fought with Botta. Here, though…nnnnot the case. Pretty much everything I can see is trashed, including Yuan's desk. It's currently almost broken in half, and lying on its side against the wall. Remains of a few potted plants are scattered all over the floor, and there are some wall chunks accompanying that. The gaudy purple carpet is in tatters in places, and…I think there are a few bloodstains in places. Um, I don't wanna know where those came from.

I don't know what look is on my face when I look back up to the group, but I'm pretty sure it's a really weird look. I'm also getting some stares – mainly from Colette, Kratos and Raine. Kratos looks pretty neutral, but Raine and Colette look pretty shocked.

I wait a few moments, before saying the only thing that seems appropriate in this situation:

"The hell happened in here?"

* * *

"_Lloyd."_

"_What?"_

"_About that fight earlier…"_

"_Are you gonna tell me that I got in the way?"_

"_You weren't bad. It looks like you've improved a little."_

"_What?"_

"_You need to learn more about yourself and your opponent. If you can understand your skills, you can fight the enemy more effectively. Sometimes you will fight enemies armed with poison – still other times, you will find your abilities suppressed via magic. The difference between knowing and not knowing those dangers and how to avoid them is immense. Merely swinging your sword is not enough. Don't forget that learning also leads to strength."_

"_Kratos…"_

"_I've spent too much time talking. Let's get going. Don't dawdle."_

* * *

"…In other words, these Exspheres are amplifiers that awaken our dormant capabilities…I wonder if I could use one too?!"

"That would be difficult. Exspheres are harmful to the body without a Key Crest."

"Um…can't we make a Key Crest?"

"As I told you before, a Key Crest is made by processing inhibitor ore, then engraving it with a crest to control the Exsphere attached to its surface. It is said to be a secret art only known to the dwarves."

"Yeah, I can engrave that charm…er, crest, but only my dad can process the ore."

I rub my eyes in response to this conversation. Ugh…it is too late for me to try and pay attention to all this crap.

Right now, we're all sitting in the larger room of the Triet Inn (I can't be assed to remember the name right now). It's maybe…I don't know, 10 or 11 o'clock at night. It took us about 4 hours to walk all the way back to Triet from the Renegade base, mainly because everyone was completely exhausted from the events of today. Especially Lloyd, Genis and I. We walked across that fucking desert _three times_ today. And right now, I'm definitely feeling the effects. My legs and feet are _so_ freaking sore, I swear to _god._

The only light coming into the room right now is the moonlight from outside, filtering in through the open window. However, it's pretty bright, so I can see most everything in here. Lloyd, Genis, and Colette are on the two beds on the other side of the room from me – Genis and Colette on one bed, Lloyd on the other. Raine and Kratos are leaning up against the wall to my right, in the space between the beds. Meanwhile, I'm all alone on my side of the room, sitting on my own bed. Which I'm currently falling asleep on. However, I don't think Raine would appreciate that, so I'm trying to stay awake the best I can.

Oh, speaking of Raine – remember when I said that her and Colette were really surprised to see me at the base? Well, that's because _apparently, _in Genis's haste to get help for Lloyd, he forgot to mention that I was with them. So they had _no_ idea that I was even _there_ until I walked into Yuan's office.

Let's just say there was some yelling and arguing involved.

But anyways, everything turned out okay. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here. In this room. With a bunch of people, having a conversation, at the butt crack of night.

God, I just want some sleep.

I look up when I hear some rustling near the ground, and I look over the edge of the bed to Raine keeling next to a blanket, and…dumping a lot of things out of a bag. Uh, what?

"Is there any inhibitor ore among these materials?" she asks, sorting the random objects around at the same time. Lloyd and the others jump off their beds and head over to the little space she's made. However, I decide to be lazy and just crawl over to the bottom end of the bed.

"Raine!" Genis exclaims, and I look up to see a look of utter shock on his face. "Did you bring these from our house?!"

"Of course." She replies, with a tone that says that it's completely normal. "They're valuable research materials."

She points to some sort of pot thing. "This is a holy vase from the Balacruf Mausoleum." Then she points to a rusty looking sword. "This is a jeweled sword from the Martel Temple." Now it's some sort of crown. "_This_ is a priest's crown from the Asgard Ruins." And then some sort of yellow rock. "This is yellow ore from the Hima mines…"

"What the…?" I look up to Lloyd, who has…some sort of grimace on his face. He gestures to the pile in front of us. "This is all junk!"

_OUH_. Big mistake.

I see Colette and Genis immediately take a step back as Raine's head jerks up. Instantly she's off the ground and in Lloyd's face, which currently has a look of something similar to panic.

"What did you just say?!"

The next minute or so is made up of Lloyd flailing around trying to avoid Raine's fists. He isn't very successful. Normally I would be laughing at this, but I am pretty much dead to the world at the moment.

The ridiculous display finally ends when Kratos kneels on the blanket, picking up what I know to be the Key Crest. He stands after he grabs it, holding it openly in his palm.

"Hm? This is…" Yes, Kratos, it's a fucking Key Crest. Can we just move this along so I can get some sleep?

Of course, Raine turns rapidly, forgetting Lloyd. She glances at Kratos's hand. "Ah, I picked that up in front of the human ranch." She looks at the mercenary. "It was engraved with angelic language, so I took it home."

Lloyd moves around Raine then, moving to stand in front of Kratos. He stares at the object in his hand for a second, then turns his gaze to Raine, so I can only see the back of his head. "Professor! This is a Key Crest!"

"The crest is half worn off." Kratos states, then holds it out for Lloyd to take. "It's unusable like this."

"…I can fix that." Lloyd nods, taking the crest from the mercenary. He examines it for a moment before looking back at the two adults. "Don't worry, Professor. You'll be able to equip that Exsphere tomorrow."

"Really?!" She looks excited at the news…kind of creepy. "Thank you, Lloyd. I'm sorry to make you go through the trouble, but I appreciate it."

It's at that moment that I decide to release a very big yawn. Like, one of those yawns that make your eyes tear up. Once my face gets back to normal, I look up at the group with watery eyes. "Does this mean we get to go to bed now? Because I'm seriously about to pass out here."

"Hm…yes, it _is_ pretty late now, isn't it?" Raine replies, and I notice her glance out the window. "Perhaps we should all get some rest."

Ugh, thank god.

As soon as she says that, I tune everyone out as I flop backwards on the bed, my head not even hitting the pillow. I hear Raine leave the room with Genis and Colette, which alerts me that I'm now alone with Lloyd and Kratos. However, I cannot muster the energy to give a shit, so I ignore them while I pull off my boots, tossing them onto the floor beside my bed.

I don't even bother to take off my glasses. The last thing I hear before I drift off is Lloyd saying that he'll start working on the Key Crest…then I just sort of…black out.

For about an hour.

And then my stomach decides to wake me up.

I sit up in the bed, cracking open my eyes to find the room to be a bit darker then it was before. I notice Lloyd sitting on his bed, staring at me in slight surprise. There are some tools spread out on his bed sheets, telling me he was in the middle of working on the Key Crest.

"What are you doing up?" he asks me, blinking. "You've only been asleep for an hour."

I yawn, stretching a bit before answering. "M'ungry." Not really looking, I lean over to my right, reaching for my bag that I remember putting on the bedside table earlier. I remember I had left some food in there for snacking.

…Apparently I'm not as coordinated as I think I am, because instead of picking up my bag, I go a little bit too far off the edge of the bed, and end up falling to the floor in a heap. I hear a surprised noise from Lloyd after I go down.

After a few seconds of silence, he speaks up. "Uh…you alright?"

"Mnn." My response is muffled by the fact that my face is pressed into the floor. I pull myself up onto my knees, blinking sharply before reaching up and loosely grabbing one of the straps to my bag, dragging it off the table to the floor with me. Silence can be heard for a few seconds as I search through the bag, before I'm able to claim my prize – a very squished hunk of bread.

Eh.

As I begin to shove my snack into my mouth, Lloyd speaks up again from across the room. "You know, you can be _really_ weird sometimes."

"Mfflb." Speaking through the bread doesn't seem to be working, so I quickly swallow the piece that I'm munching on, turning to him. "How so?" My voice is very monotone – most likely because I'm tired.

He shrugs, and I notice for the first time that he's not wearing his jacket. "Uh…I don't know. You just…_are_."

I stare at him for a few seconds, eyes half closed.

He blushes. "…Why are you looking at me like that?"

I blow a little raspberry at him, then return to my snack, finishing it in a few quick bites.

There's a few moments of silence as I finish eating, and then he speaks up again. "Hey, um...thanks."

That suprises me enough to wake me up a bit. I turn back to look at him. "Hm? What for?"

He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. "Well, y'know...for coming to help me. I probably would've gotten stuck if you hadn't got there."

I can't help but scoff a bit. "Yeah, well, I wasn't much help anyways. I wasn't there when you ran into that guy in the base, even though I probably should have."

"You couldn't even see where I was going! You were in front of me, remember?" He flaps a hand at me. "Besides, how was I supposed to know there was someone in there?"

I don't respond to that.

Lloyd sighs at my lack of response. "Look, just...thanks, okay?"

I look at him for a minute before quietly responding. "Yeah...no problem."

There's a few moments of awkward silence, before Lloyd clears his throat. "Okay, um, I'm gonna...get back to work on this." He holds up the unfinished Key Crest in his hand. "You should probably go back to sleep."

"Mmm." I grunt in reply, grabbing my back again. "I think I'm gonna change first, though." As I say this, I pull myself to my feet, walking over to the door leading out of the room. "Be right back."

I exit the room as Lloyd calls out in reply, which is cut off as I close the door behind me. I then make an immediate beeline for the inn's bathroom, which, for some reason, is at the top of the stairs - just next to Raine and Genis's room.

Once I make it into the room, I change into the pj's that Nova gave me - a long-sleeved, black cotton shirt and some baggy grey cotton pants. I also manage to brush my teeth with some toothpaste and a toothbrush I bought earlier, which I really appreciate - I haven't been able to do that for about two days now. I think I was starting to grow moss.

Before I leave, I can't help but stare longingly at the shower in the room. However, it'll have to wait until tomorrow - I have a feeling I would fall asleep under all the hot water if I tried right now.

With a tired yawn, I exit the bathroom and make my way back down the stairs. When I get back to my room, I notice that Lloyd is gone. Must've finished Raine's Key Crest already. Funny, I didn't even hear him go up the stairs.

I yawn again as I shuffle over to my bed, throwing my bag back onto the small table to the right of it. This time, before I jump into the bed, I take off my glasses and place them on the edge of the table. Only then do I crawl back into the bed, throwing the covers over me and snuggling into them.

Once again, I'm out like a light, sinking into the warmth of a soft, slightly sandy bed.

* * *

...Uh, yeah, hai again.

Remind me to stop making promises about updating quickly. XD

Okay, soooooo...the reason this chapter took so long was...well, quite a few things. I actually didn't write anything for a REALLY long time, and then when I finally got going again, so many things got in my way. The best incident I can think of was me actually loosing my flashdrive (which is where I keep all my fic documents) for an entire weekend on my school bus. :[

Also, as sort of stated above, I've been busy trying to graduate from high school! I managed that pretty well, all things considered, but that really did take a toll on my writing abilities.

AND IM AN ADULT NOW HOLY CRAP. So weird, I started this fucking story in 2010, and I only have like...10 chapters. whatthehelliswrongwithmeaskjdkjsfnjs

But, uh...because I'm 18 now, and I REALLY don't want such an age gap with my S.I, I'm changing Cassie's age to 17. The year that the story is taking place will be in this year too, just for the sake of being accurate with events. I can barely remember being 16 now. :/

Another thing that happened in my absence was me losing one of my dogs. We have another doggie now, but the dog in mention, Yuna, was one of the dogs that was in the first chapter of this story. BECAUSE of this, I'm going to edit her out, to save myself a bit of heartache. :I

Soooooooo, yeah! That's all I really have to say for now. Sorry for the long ass author's note at the very end.

P.S - For those people who have one,and in case I've forgotten to mention it here, I have a Tumblr! The link is posted on my page, in case anyone wants to, like, bug me about stuff. :3

P.S.S - There's some art of Cassie that I've put on my page, so you guys can get a better image of her outfit! I tried actually putting them in here, but I guess they didn't work...:P

**NEXT TIME****: Back in the deserT AGH MORE SAND FUCK EVERYBODY**


	11. Are We There Yet?

OKAY BELIEVE IT OR NOT I ACTUALLY HAVE AN EXCUSE FOR THISE BEING LATE!

While in the process of writing this chapter, my flashdrive, where I keep all my writing documents, decided to crap the hell out and it needed to be formatted...which means I had to delete EVERYTHING OFF IT.

Luckily I had a back-up of all my files! But the back-ups were old, soooo I ended up losing a good chunk of this chapter...and the chunk I lost was a part that was hard enough for me to write the first time. Soooo that took me a bit for me to want to rewrite. :[

BUT IM REALLY GLAD THAT I GOT THIS DONE NOW BECAUSE I AM ACTUALLY LEAVING ON A TRIP ON FRIDAY AND WILL BE GONE FROM THE INTERNET FOR A WHOLE WEEK XD

ALSO QUICK NOTE HERE: I started actually playing the game again not too long ago, and found out that the entire scene with Nova's caravan in Chapter 8 was ENTIRELY INNACURATE. Turns out it wasn't actually Nova that was at the caravan. :[

HOWEVER I went back and fixed it a while ago, so if you want to not be confused later on, I'd recommend that you go back and read that part again. You don't have to, though, I'm just sayin. :P

Also I'm gonna go ahead and stop those disclaimer things.

OKAY ON WITH THE CHAPTER.

* * *

**Chapter 11: Are We There Yet?**

...

...

...

_EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEGGGGHHHHHHH._

Holy...mother of _fuck_.

I am so…fucking…SOOOOOOOOOOORE...

I'm…not even fully awake yet, but I can tell just how AMAZINGLY sore I am just from...not moving. At all. And I'm _not_ very willing to move, either. I kind of feel like a dead body going through rigor mortis - really, really stiff and unable to bend. If that makes any sense at all.

Of course, half of that 'unable to bend'-ness is from me not even _wanting_ to move.

Good god, I thought I felt bad _yesterday._

I'm _so_ unwilling to move, in fact, that I don't even open my eyes once I'm fully awake, so I'm left to listen to…well, whatever is going on at the moment in the room where I'm sleeping. I can tell it's actually MORNING this time, as soft light comes in through my eyelids. Another hint to that fact is that I'm actually not the only one _awake_ this time around- I can hear someone talking somewhere on the other side of the room.

When I listen in closer, I discover that it's actually two people - Lloyd and Genis, chatting to each other about something. They're keeping their voices down, however, so I can't hear what they're talking about.

That's…probably a good thing, though, because that means I can try and get a bit more sleep...and put off having to move around. And also put off having to talk to people, because that is physically impossible for me to do right now.

I _do_ have to move my right arm, though. Because I guess sometime during the night, I was asleep with it folded under my head. I actually do this a lot - bad habit, I guess - but I think I must have had it like this for too long because...now I can't really feel it.

So, as inconspicuously as possible, I shift my arm so that it's free from underneath my head. I have to repress a groan when I do this, due to my arm waking back up and prickling from the resumed blood flow (owowowow), but somehow, I manage. So then I curl up a bit more and try to...get some more sleep...

"...Is she awake?"

...fffffuck.

I try my best _not_ to react to Genis's sudden comment, but I guess that doesn't work, because next comes Lloyd's voice. "I don't know..." Suddenly his voice gets _really_ loud. "Hey Cassie, you awaaake?"

I can't help but flinch a bit at the sudden change in volume, but otherwise, I try to remain absolutely still. Come on, leave me aloooone...

The next thing I hear is something whooshing through the air, before something soft thumps onto my face.

Lloyd threw a pillow at me.

…There's a few moments silence. Then, finally: "...Mm_rrrrr_gh."

Yyyyeup. Classy as fuck.

Reluctantly, I sit up in the bed, blearily opening my eyes as I do. The thrown pillow flops away from my head when I do so, careening over the edge of the mattress and landing softly on the floor. I stare at it for a few seconds, before turning my head towards the two boys on the other side of the room - who, currently, are blobs.

"Mornin'." says the red-clothed swordsman. I can detect a hint of a laugh in his voice. "Sleep well?"

"...Did'ya have to throw a pillow at me?" I mumble at him, ignoring his question. I immediately regret talking though, as I feel my jaw lock up just from the effort.

God dammit.

Yawning instead of opting to talk further, I reach over to grab my glasses off the nightstand, ignoring the screams of protest from the muscles in my arm. As I work them onto my face, I work my jaw a bit before turning to look at the boys again.

"Whuttime'sit?" That comes out _really_ mumbled, thanks to my lock jaw. It basically comes out as just one word.

I get a raised eyebrow from Genis, but I guess he understood enough of my question to answer it. "About eight o'clock."

Aaaaagh, why.

"We were about to wake you up, actually." Lloyd adds, and I turn my gaze to him. "We're gonna eat breakfast soon."

"Hhhm." I'm still working around my jaw, so that comes out sounding like a yawn. I attempt try talking again, and thankfully, my words come out a lot clearer than my previous attempt. "Is erryone else 'wake?"

Genis nods at me, but I notice he has a strange look on his face. "...Why are you talking like that?"

"Ugh, surry...I can't reelly...talk in the murnin'." There's a sudden sharp _pop_ in both my ears, and I wince, slapping a hand to my right ear. "_Oh shi_- uugh, just popped my ears..."

As I rub the aching ear, I notice another problem that I should...probably take care of. I glance back over at the two boys, who at this point are staring at me like I'm a freakin' weirdo.

"Um..." I start, thinking about how to phrase this question...eh, let's just get right to the point. "Do we have a, uh...hairbrush or something?"

Surprisingly, it's Lloyd who answers, pointing over to a corner of the room where everyone dropped the majority of our luggage. "I think there's one in one of those bags."

I utter a quick 'thanks' before hauling myself out of the comfy bed (which I regret because popping joints and soreness and oW), to head over to the luggage corner. Lloyd and Genis go back to whatever conversation they were having before I woke up, but they keep their voices quiet so I can't hear. Doesn't bother me much, though. It's waaay too early in the morning for me to want to eavesdrop.

I feel kind of awkward going through the bags, as I don't know who the hell they belong to in the group. I'm also not too keen on the possibility of accidentally stumbling on someone's clothes. Or worse - underwear. It takes me a little bit of careful digging, but I finally manage to find a fairly unused hairbrush in what I _believe_ to be one of Colette's bags. Or it could be Raine's - I really have no idea.

_Ugh_, who cares - it's a fucking hairbrush.

I go ahead and take a seat on the floor, not even bothering to sit on a chair or anything, and immediately begin to try and tame my hair back into suitable order. However, as soon as I begin to pull the brush through the tangled mess, it stops entirely, caught on what I _assume_ to be a massive knot. Of course, I expected that - it's always like this when I try to brush my hair when it's all tangled.

I _don't_ expect when the hairbrush doesn't come out when I try to start again.

Frowning, I pull a little harder on the brush, only to feel a sharp stinging on my scalp in return. Frowning even _more_, I try using both hands, yanking as hard as I can. The brush still doesn't budge, and I think I drag the boys out of their conversation again when I let out a yelp.

And then I let out a curse when the brush handle slips out of my grip and smacks me right in the nose.

There's a sudden silence in the room, save for the light sound of the brush swinging around next to my ear. I can practically _feel_ my face grow red from embarrassment.

Finally, I let out a huff, standing back up.

"Pardon me." I say, my voice surprisingly monotone. Without looking back at the pair, I turn on my heel (and give myself a splinter), walking towards the door leading out of the room, quickly exiting before the situation can get even more embarrassing.

Of course...now I'm standing in the lobby of an inn in my p.j's. With a hairbrush stuck in my hair.

...

I ignore any possible person in the damn area and walk as fast as possible up to the second floor to find Raine/Colette.

When I reach the landing, the first thing I do is knock on the door to what I remember to be Raine's room. Nobody responds, which…I'm kind of glad for, because I have no idea how to talk to Raine yet. I don't even know why I knocked on her door first.

Next, I carefully shuffle my way over to the door to Colette's room. This time, as soon as I knock, I hear feet moving on the other side. A few seconds later, I'm surprised (and a little nervous) when the door opens, and it's the Professor herself who's standing there.

At first, she looks a little surprised to see me in the doorway. But _then_ I notice her eye the offending brush in my hair, and her face immediately deadpans. She then looks me in the eye, one eyebrow quirked up in a questioning manner.

Feeling _very _nervous, I hesitantly raise a hand in greeting, giving a half-hearted wave. "Uh, morning..." I can't help but give a little 'heh' after.

Raine stares at me for a few more seconds, before sighing and opening the door a bit wider. "Come in."

"Uh, okay." I duck my head as I carefully move past her into the room, embarrassed enough by my situation. As she closes the door behind her, I glance around, and the first thing I see is Colette sitting on the lone bed, still in her p.j's.

"Oh, good morning!" she says, smiling. That smile quickly drops as a look of confusion crosses her face. "Um...you have a hairbrush in your hair."

"Y-yeah, I know." My face grows red again, and I absently grab onto the brush handle and yank, just to see if it'll work this time. It doesn't. "I tried brushing my hair a minute ago and...now it's stuck."

"Is that the only reason you came up here?" I turn my head to look at Raine, who's eyeballing me with this...look. I can't tell if it's suspicion or curiosity or...something else. Whatever it is, it's making me feel really awkward, so I look away.

"W-well, I wasn't gonna stay down there with Lloyd and Genis." I answer quietly. "That would have been too awkward..."

"I'll help you, Cassie!" I turn my attention back to Colette, who's smiling really big at me. She pats the space on the bed in front of her, I guess telling me where I'm supposed to sit.

….

…Okaaay, why not?

I mumble a quick thanks before shuffling over to the bed, taking a seat in front of the blonde Chosen. And feeling very awkward and nervous – or at least even more of that - while doing so. Which, by the way, is perfectly understandable. Yup.

The next few moments are made up of a bunch of hair yanking, Colette uttering many 'sorry's and me going 'OWOWOWOWOWOW'.

Glorious.

Finally, there's a massive ripping noise, and my head feels considerably lighter. And also feels like it's on fire.

"I got it!"

"Aaaahahaaoow…" I rub the sore spot on my head, feeling how poofed up my hair is from all the yanking. "Ugh, thanks Colette. Man that hurt…" That last part I say much quieter. Geez, after that, I am REALLY not looking forward to trying to brush the rest of my hair.

That thought doesn't get very far. Something starts going through my hair, and I stiffen in surprise. Turning my head, I see…Colette brushing my hair. For…some reason.

…Ummm.

"…Why are you brushing my hair?" I ask her, my voice filled with confusion. She jumps slightly and looks up at me, appearing apologetic.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" She replies, still holding onto my hair. "It just looked like you could use some help with it…and your hair's so pretty, too."

My hair's pretty? How can it when I haven't showered in like - three days? "Y-you don't need to brush it for me, Colette. Really."

"But I want to!"Oooooh god, she's giving me puppy dog eyes. I do _not_ want the Chosen of Sylvarant giving me _puppy dog eyes_.

There's a few moments of silence, in which I probably have the most embarrassed face on the planet. Finally, I just sigh quietly and turn to face the wall. "…thanks."

I hear Colette make a little happy noise (oh jeez), and the brush begins going through my hair once again. A _lot_ gentler than I was doing it, I might add.

There's nothing weird about an important fictional character from a video game doing your hair. Yup. Nothing unusual _at all_.

…I feel so self-conscious right now.

"Pardon me, but…" HOLY-! Jeeeesus Christ, I totally forgot that Raine was in the room. Recovering from my mini-heart attack, I turn my attention towards the half-elven woman, who is currently sitting at a small table in the middle of the room. And is…giving me a very scrutinizing look. Which is making me very uncomfortable. "Would you mind if I asked you something?"

Fuck. "U-um…okay." I start fiddling with my ear nervously. "What is it?"

Her brow furrows a bit, like she's thinking, and she folds her arms across the table. "Why exactly did you come here with Lloyd and Genis? What are your intentions?"

My…intentions?

"…I'm sorry, I don't…understand your question." The confusion in my voice is very obvious. At least, to me it is.

Raine simply stares before continuing. "Forgive me for saying so, but I see no reason for you to just simply follow those two here. Therefore, I can assume that you must have _some_ motive for following Lloyd and Genis here."

I have to look away a bit at that. "…I'm sorry, but…I don't. Not really, anyway." I'm getting reeeaaaally nervous about where this conversation is going.

Obviously, that answer doesn't satisfy the Professor. Her eyes narrow in what I can only guess is suspicion. "Then why come here? Surely you understand the dangers that come with the Journey of Regeneration. Yet you would willingly throw yourself into it?"

I freeze at her statement, and I vaguely notice that Colette has stopped messing around with my hair. A few moments of silence pass. During which, I try desperately to think of something to say.

"…I understand." I finally reply. My voice comes out very quiet. "Believe me, I do. I was in Iselia when it was attacked…saw the fires. I was almost killed by Desians – if it wasn't for Lloyd and Genis, I would have been."

At this confession, I focus my gaze towards my lap. "…I don't want anyone else to go through that. It was…it was horrible." I squirm a bit. "The thing is, I just don't think it's an option for me to just…sit around and wait for the regeneration to happen. Not after Iselia."

For what I'm talking about, I'm surprised at how…easily the words flow out of me. Usually I'm really bad at talking about stuff like this. Then again, I'm not looking anywhere in Raine's direction, so I guess that's helping.

Plus it's…really hard to _not_ talk about something that's been the only thing on your mind for the past few days.

"You can't just expect the world to change because you wish it to." Not too sure where I'm going with this, I make a gesture of sorts with my hands. "If you want something done, then you just…need to do it. Don't wait for someone to do it for you."

Wow, that actually sounded kind of…smart. I'm pretty sure that's one of my Dad's lines though.

"…Hmm." I finally look back to the Professor, who no longer looking at me suspiciously. Instead, she looks like she's thinking, one hand held up in one of those classic 'I'm thinking' gestures. "Those are some rather wise words." The hand drops, and she once again stares at me. "I'm impressed."

Aaaand, now I'm blushing. "Um…thanks." Feeling uncomfortable, I scratch the back of my head with one hand. "But…that's actually my dad talking. Not me. Still though…they're words to go by. And I'm going to try to follow them the best I can."

I freeze at this, and glance back at the half-elven woman. "I mean- if you'll let me come with you. I don't…think you actually told me if I could come with you guys or not."

I really hope she doesn't say no after all that. I think I might cry.

My anxiousness grows when Raine simply raises an eyebrow. "Really? I thought we cleared this up last night with Lloyd and Genis."

…Wait, what?

"Um…we did?" I'm pretty sure the confusion is clear on my face, because I notice the corners of Raine's mouth turn up slightly (oi).

"Well, it wouldn't be really fair of me to let those two come along and not you, would it?" She gives me a friendly looking smile (which weirds me out for some reason). "After all, you did come all this way with them. And you have helped the both of them quite a bit."

…Oh.

I don't really know how to respond to this sudden revelation, as many things are running through my mind right now – relief, nervousness, and slight panic being a few – so I simply nod my head in response.

"I'm so happy you're coming with us, Cassie!" I'm suddenly reminded that Colette is sitting behind me, and I turn to see her…giving me a really gleeful look. "I'm sure you'll help us a lot!"

And I'm blushing again. "Uh…thanks, Colette."

She gives me a really big smile in response, and then…resumes brushing and messing around with my hair. Welp, okay. Guess this conversation really didn't faze her.

…Jesus, I really hope I don't drag these people down.

* * *

"_Other than the Chosen, our group doesn't look like one that's on a journey to save the world."_

"_You still don't trust Lloyd and Genis?"_

"_They are much too young to bear the fate of the world. I'm concerned that they will not be able to handle this journey. I'm not too certain about the girl they brought with them, either."_

"_While I may be an elf, I'm still just a school teacher from a small village. And you're a mercenary who fights for money. I don't think we're fit to handle the task of saving the world either, wouldn't you agree?"_

"_Hmph. Indeed..."_

* * *

I am going to die.

I am going to fucking die.

I am going to fall over into a sand dune and DIE.

...I don't dare say that out loud, of course. I don't wanna complain in front of these guys (especially not Kratos). So instead, I mentally project it as loud as I freaking can in the vague (and heat-induced) hope that something will hear me and teleport me to somewhere that has air conditioning and a giant glass of iced tea.

...oh god why did I think of iced tea thAT DID NOT HELP AT ALL.

...

Um, well, _anyways_, if my loud ass complaining didn't clue you in, we have been walking through the desert for a _while_ now. After I was done hanging out with Raine and Colette (or at least when Colette stopped trying to put a thousand braids in my hair), we only stayed around the inn long enough to eat some breakfast. Which means I never got my shower.

I was pretty upset about that before I realized that it wouldn't really matter anyways. Y'know, since we still needed to head to the Fire Seal and have our asses handed to us.

...I still would have liked to get clean though.

I can tell that I'm not the only one who's being dragged down by this situation. Everyone else seems really 'EEEEGH' right about now. Except maybe Kratos. I can't really tell when it comes to him. I don't really want to either – he still scares me.

I really _really_ hope we get there soon. I've had a rock or something stuck in my boot for the past hour. Plus these boots are still really rubbing up against my heels because they're still new, so I'm just UGH.

I guess the cosmos hears my pleas, because after a few more minutes the ruins come into sight. There's a collective groan a relief from about half of the group (that bit being Lloyd, Genis and I), but not much else is said as we make our way over.

As soon as we approach the sandy ruins, Lloyd sort of doubles over and groans, hands on his knees.

"Ah, so hot..." he sighs, wiping his face. "Man, I'm beat."

"See?" Genis sighs as well, standing next to the brunette. "You're already worn out." Genis had been remarking about how Lloyd's enthusiasm wouldn't last all the way to the Fire Seal. And obviously, he was right.

I manage to get my glasses back on in time to see Lloyd give the half-elf a very withered glare, before he sighs again. "I am _sick _of this desert."

I think everyone is, Lloyd.

Nobody gets a chance to remark on Lloyd's comment though, as Noishe, who had been ahead of us, suddenly backs up to get behind the swordsman, letting out a very sharp whine.

Lloyd turns to look at the Protozoan, not moving from his position much. "What's wrong, Noishe?"

"Be on your guard." Aaaand Kratos just scared the piss out of me. I snap my gaze towards him, and see the mercenary in a very 'battle-ready' position, one hand on the hilt of his sword. "There are enemies about!"

Oh, fucking Christ.

I quickly turn back around towards the ruins, just in time to see two…floating, red ball things. I think they're called Fire Elements? Yeah, anyway, two of those are currently speeding towards us. And they have these weird rune things circling around them, so it makes it _slightly_ more terrifying. God, I can't tell of that's just part of them or if they're- oH CRAP FIRE BALL.

I shriek and throw myself to the ground to avoid the random magic being thrown at my face. When I look back up, everyone else has already thrown themselves into action. Kratos is battling with one Fire Element (and winning very easily), while Lloyd is tackling the other one with his swords.

But _apparently_, those two had friends, as there's like…four more coming this way. And two of them are a LOT bigger than the others.

Frickle.

I scramble up to my feet as quickly as I can and stumble forward, moving past Genis as he starts up a spell. I remember last second to grab my gun from my holster, yanking it out as one of the Fire Elements (thankfully a smaller one) approaches the two of us. I attempt to shoot at it to get its attention, so they won't go after Genis, but I'm not sure if any of my shots hit it. I DO get its attention, though. Oh boy, do I.

I'm not given much time to react before the floating fire rock hurls itself towards, making a strange noise that sounds strangely similar to a Minecraft Blaze mob. And…that is just creepy.

I actually end up running _away_ from the Fire Element as I attempt to shoot the fucking thing, as it seems fully intent on chasing me around. Since it's closer, I actually manage to get in a few hits with my gun, which…has a very interesting effect. The pellets actually leave small holes in the Element, which billow steam upon impact. I think it's because my gun has a Water element attached. Pretty useful.

"Aqua Edge!"

Oop, looks like Genis finished casting his spell. From my right, blades of shimmering water fly in and slice into the Element, causing a flurry of hissing, steam, and chunks of hOT ROCK BLASTING INTO MY FACE OWOWOWOWOWOW.

I frantically wipe at my burning face as the extinguished element crashes to my feet with a loud groan, effectively in pieces. I have to dance away from it when I feel the heat from it through my boots (I really don't want my feet on fire thANK YOU VERY MUCH), but that backfires when I trip on a piece of stone path sticking out of the sand, landing square on my ass.

Lovely.

Finally recovering from the burning rock to the face, I stand back up and look for any more Fire Elements…and see the last one being taken down by Kratos. Who, by the way, still looks very pristine for just being in a fight.

It doesn't help that I just spotted Lloyd hilariously sprawled on the ruin steps, not too far away from the mercenary. Come on, Lloyd, get with it man.

I notice Kratos look around at everyone else as we get our bearings (Colette has to help Lloyd up), and I tttthink I notice him murmur something under his breath, but I'm too far away to make it out. I'm pretty sure it's a veiled insult at us. Hey man, we're trying. Shut up.

I guess Lloyd heard whatever the mercenary said, because he gives him a funny look. "What is?"

"Ah, nothing." I have to suppress a snort at Kratos's tone. I guess he wasn't expecting anyone to hear him. Serves you right, Kratty, ohohoho. "Anyways, it would be a good idea for you to learn techniques to protect yourselves."

Wait, what the hell brought that up?

"Are you talking about self-defense training?" Colette pipes in.

"Something like that." The mercenary replies, crossing his arms. "Techniques to raise your defenses during battles. I'll show you how. Once you grasp the theory, the rest should be easy."

Oooooh, now I get it. Obviously Kratty was not impressed by how we did against the Fire Elements just now.

It becomes obvious that the mercenary's gonna be teaching us in turns, as the first person he drags off is Lloyd, heading towards an open area to the side of the ruins. While that goes on, I, as well as the rest of the group, take it as an opportunity to actually sit down for a few minutes. And I really need it because there is still a fucking rock in my shoe and it's fucking _killing meeee._

I decide to plant myself on the steps of the ruins, over the alternative of taking a seat in the sand. I already have enough of that shit plastered on me, thank YOU. Huffing, I yank off my (slightly singed) boot, shaking it around until the offending object clatters onto the stone below, along with a surprising amount of sand. I brush whatever's left off my sock before shoving it back on, and then giving the same treatment to the other boot.

Hate the deserrrrrrrrrrt.

"Hmm? What happened to Noishe?" I look up at Raine's voice, spotting her a few feet away from me. She's looking around, I'm guessing for the big dog…who appears to be completely missing from the area. Well damn, I didn't even notice he ran off.

I hear Genis sigh from my left. "He must've run off again. Probably because of the monsters."

Ah yes, Noishe's problem with monsters comes up once again. The big dog actually did this NUMEROUS times when Lloyd, Genis and I were making our way towards Triet. This was annoying as _fuck_ while we were going through the desert because he had our water canteens…and it takes him a while to want to come back.

…Wait, weren't Lloyd and Kratos supposed to be part of this conversation? I think they were in the game…then again, you did learn the defense things pretty much instantly there, so I guess that's the reason.

"He'll come back eventually." I say aloud, at the same time shoving my boot back on. "He has before, remember?"

"Yeah, I know, but still…" Genis sounds rather annoyed. Honestly, I can't blame him. That dog is a freakin nuisance.

The half-elf doesn't get a chance to say anything else, as at that moment, the two missing swordsman come back from…wherever the hell they went off to. I can't tell if their little session went well, but Lloyd looks kind of excited, so…I guess it went okay?

…Aaaaand now Kratos is staring at me. Why? Why is Kratos staring at me?

"Get up."

Well, fuck.

I immediately stand up, not wanting to incur the wrath of the mercenary (because fuck that). He gives a slight nod, then turns and walk back the way he came from. I follow him after a moment, during which I try and…steel myself. I can hear Lloyd saying something really excitedly behind me, but right now the feeling is not with me.

Why the hell did he have to pick meeeeeee…

After we get a good distance away from everyone, Kratos stops a few feet in front of me, and turns to face me (oh boy). I immediately freeze, trying the best I can to…not look directly at him. God, dude, why must you terrify me so.

I notice the mercenary look me over for a second, which freaks me out a bit, before speaking. "How much experience do you have in combat?"

"Oh-um…" I'm a bit surprised by the direct question. "Not…very much. I haven't been in too many fights before." In fact, the only fights I've ever been in are the ones that have happened here.

Kratos 'hmph's to himself. "And what is your fighting style?"

"Uh…I guess it's mainly long-ranged combat?" I don't really know if I'm saying the right thing, so I pull out my gun as proof.

I notice the mercenary's eyes linger slightly on my weapon (probably because it's a Desian one, whoops), but then he nods slightly, I guess in confirmation.

"Very well." He says, looking me in the eye (holy shit no). "First things first – which is your dominant hand?"

To my surprise, Kratos's small lesson actually goes…pretty well. I mean, considering it was me he was teaching. My defensive move is something called Barricade. It's…pretty much exactly the same as Guardian, but Kratos told me that it was more suited for those who fight at distances, like I would be doing.

It took me a while to get the hang of performing it (I need to cross my arms directly in front of me for it to work), but eventually I was able to make my own green bubble of protection.

I also felt really awesome while doing it. Like…really really awesome. Because MAGIC AND SHIT.

…I still didn't enjoy being around Kratos, though. Yeesh.

But hey! I'm more prepared for the Seal now, I guess. At least…I hope I am.

Mm. I'm probably still gonna have my ass handed to me one way or another.

* * *

HOLLA HOLLA HOLLA CHAPTER IS DONE

This chapter is still pretty short, but I don't even fucKING CARE BECAUSE GOD THIS ONE FRUSTRATED ME SO BAD.

Note here: From now on, I'm going to start updating this whenever I have a full chapter written and at least half of another one done, so that I can HOPEFULLY start updating more frequently. I don't know how well that'll work out, though, because I am actually going to start working soon. And that'll eat up quite a lot of my free time aaaaaaaaaagh.

Also I may come back and edit this once I get back from my trip, because I feel like a lot of people were OOC here…

**NEXT TIME:** **Fire Seal! Lots of Lava! HOLY SHIT IM SWEATY GET ME OUTTA HERE**


	12. Heat, Lava and a Lot of Cursing

SYMPHONIA CHRONICLES

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

* * *

**Chapter 12: Heat, Lava and a Lot of Cursing**

OOOOOOOOH MY GOD.

Okay.

_Fuck_ the Fire Seal.

Seriously, just…fuck it. I don't like it here.

It took us a bit to actually get into this damn place (because Raine was spazzing out over the Seal entrance whoop), but I decided that I didn't want to go in _at all_ after the fucking doors opened. The amount of _heat_ that came out the entrance, just…I choked on it. That's how bad it was. It was like when you open a hot oven to take the food out when it's done cooking.

But, y'know, we have to be in here, so it doesn't matter what _I _want.

It is literally SO hot in here, that all of us actually ended up stripped most of our clothes the moment we came inside. Kratos even took off that weird cape thing of his.

That's saying something.

The only one who didn't have to strip in some way was Genis. Him and his stupid silly ass shorts…

I groan under my breath, rubbing my face with my hands in an attempt to wipe off the sweat. I don't know why I thought that would work – my palms are just as sweaty. Hell - every inch of me is covered in sweat at this point. I even resorted to taking off my hoodie in an attempt to get cool (which I NEVER do), so I'm just down to this…um, well, I don't even know what to call it. Sarah gave it to me. It's like a tanktop but it has like a sweater neck thing to it. And it's made out of some weird material.

Normally I would be uncomfortable with the no sleeve thing (I have an issue with my shoulders not being covered) but I just do not give a damn right now because GOD DAMMIT IT'S _FUCKING HOT_.

As I'm complaining mentally, I hear Lloyd groan from the front of the group (my tired ass is at the back ahahahah). "Ugh, this place is even worse than _outside._ Why does it have to be so hot?!"

Cue group sigh.

"It's the Fire Seal, Lloyd." Genis sighs (he's walking next to the teen). "It's kind of in the name."

The brunet just groans again in reply. It's actually kind of weird looking at Lloyd right now, 'cause he's not wearing his signature red jacket. He's still got the gloves, but he kinda needs those, so on they stayed. I'm pretty sure that he would have thrown them at a wall if he could- he keeps complaining about how sweaty his hands are.

I do not blame him.

…Y'know, now that everyone's kinda stripped right now, I can see just how very…under-armored I am. I seriously think I'm the only here who's not wearing ANY sort of protection (except maybe Genis – can't tell). Kratos isn't really, but he definitely has some sort of chest guard on. Same with Lloyd. Raine and Colette seem to be wearing some sort of guards, and I can see Colette also has some sort of arm bracers under her jacket (she took off the cape thing she wears over it). It makes me feel…very very naked. And vulnerable.

Soon as we get back to Triet, I'm buying some damn armor.

…Okay, maybe I should get back to the current situation. Instead of continuing to talk about how everyone is stripped, because that topic line is starting to get a little weird.

Right now we're walking through the long hallway that's at the beginning of the seal area. It's a lot longer than it was in the game – long enough that we've been going down the path for about 10 minutes now. We haven't run into any monsters (yet), so I'm assuming that they're farther in. Of course, they could just be lurking around – it's pretty dark in this hallway. The only light comes from a torch on the wall every now and then.

Also, fun note here – the farther in we go, the hotter it gets. Possibly because I remember there being lava where all the puzzle bits are. Isn't _THAT_ just fantastic?

UUUUUUUGH, I wanna get outta here.

Aaaand because I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings, I almost just walked straight into Kratos. Who is stopped, for some reason. Actually, everyone is stopped. Why is everyone sto-

Oh hey, we're at that intersection thingie. Or should I say, we're at the part of the Fire Seal where the hallways branch off into the different entrances of the puzzle room. I have no idea.

"Aw, man…" Lloyd pipes up. I turn my attention to the brunet, who's currently craning his head to look down both ends of the hallway. "Which way are we supposed to go?"

"Well, there's a doorway right there." I speak up, pointing directly ahead at said doorway. "We could just…go in that way."

"Just because there's a door there doesn't mean that it's the right way." I turn my gaze to Genis. "This is a Seal – there's bound to be some sort of puzzle involved."

Oh yeah, I kinda forgot about that…wait, I just remembered it in my head before. How did I forget about it already? …Ugh, whatever, it's way too hot for this shit. Let's just goooo with the floooow.

After a few moments of debate among the group, we settle on separating into pairs and checking out each pathway. Kratos ends up going with Colette, since he's in charge of protecting her, and they go down the right path. Raine goes with Genis, and they both go through the main door. Aaand for some reason, that leaves me with Lloyd, with us going down towards the left.

Eh, at least I'm not stuck with Kratos. Or Raine, for that matter.

The first few moments of walking are very…quiet. I guess because both of us are too tired and hot to really hold a decent conversation. The only sounds are from the echoes of our footsteps…and also the faint sound of something bubbling. Which I'm going to assume is lava.

And then almost on cue there's a massive hissing noise in front of us.

"OH crap!" I jolt, grasping for my gun as Lloyd hurriedly draws his swords. A rather large Fire Element hurls out of the darkness in front of us, followed by a Scorpion and…some weird plant thing. I think it's called a Brown Pot?

Oh my god who cares fOCUS CASSIE.

Lloyd immediately focuses in on the Scorpion, so I cast my attention onto the Fire Element currently trying to blast him from the right. I try my best to fire some shots at the flying rock, and am pleasantly surprised when they actually hit him. It. Whatever.

This obviously irritates the thing, because now it's hurtling its way towards me, hURRAH.

Going with my previous strategy, I back away as I continue to fire my gun at the floating rock. It groans ominously with each bullet impact, the holes each one makes billowing steam. But even so, I don't really seem to be doing much damage.

Oh, oh, wait! Maybe I could try using Aqua Edge! Genis used it before to take care of these things. …But wait, I don't know how to use it…then again, I don't know how to use Fire Ball, and I can still do it.

Whatever, let's try it.

Dropping my aim, I turn around and run back down the hallway, just far enough to put myself some distance away from the monster chasing me. Once I think I'm a good distance away, I turn on my heel, and hold up my left hand in the direction of my enemy.

Okay, okay, okay, concentraaate…imagine big blades made of water. Blades of water slicing into the Fire Element. Come on, you can do this, just picture it, aaaaand…

"Aqua Edge!"

Like last time, the Exsphere on my hand flashes blue at the incantation. However, this time around, no runes appear at my feet, just…a flash of light.

And also what appears to attack the Fire Element is more akin to giant rain drops than water blades. They simply hover for a few seconds, then splash to the ground.

…..

"Well, that didn't wo-OOOOAHG!" My statement is interrupted by the floating rock ball flying towards me at an unbelievable speed. I have to _literally_ almost bend myself in half to avoid the thing barreling straight into my torso. And, since I have no balance, the little maneuver causes me to fall flat on my back with my arms pin wheeling in an attempt to stop it.

Aaaaand as soon as that happens my face is assaulted by the Brown Pot I forgot was still running around.

I shriek and flail around on the floor, trying to bat the thing away from my face, because it's currently trying to scratch my cheeks to bits with its pointy little feet. Or what could be considered as its feet – OWOWOWOW OH GOD IT JUST BIT ME GET IT OFF-

"Demon Fang!"

My hand is suddenly blasted backward as the Brown Pot is ripped off it by the wave of mana that just hit it dead-on. I don't even get to see where it landed before Lloyd runs past me, swords at the ready. I crane my head backward just in time to see him kick that Fire Element straight into a wall, resulting in a very loud cracking noise (DAMN, Lloyd). I can't tell if it came from the wall or the monster, but I hear the Fire Element give off a very nasty groan, so I assume it came from it.

I manage to scramble into a sitting position in time to see the monster peels itself off from the wall. Chunks of its rock body fall from its back, exposing a bright fiery core in the middle. Before it can try and go after us again, I aim my gun and shoot at the core.

That turns out to be a _very _weak spot on the thing, as when the bullets hit it, the core basically explodes in hissing steaming chunks of rock. The defeated Fire Element groans one last time before falling to the ground, breaking into steaming chunks.

A few moments pass, the only sound being both Lloyd and I trying to catch our breath, along with the remaining hissing from the extinguished monster.

Finally, Lloyd sheathes his wooden swords (which obviously do not work well here – I can see singes on them), before walking over to me. Seeing as I'm still sitting on the ground.

"You okay?" He asks me, a concerned look on his face.

"Uh-yeah, yeah, I'm fine." I reply, waving my non-bitten hand at him. "I just…got surprised, is all."

I'm caught by surprise when he offers out a hand. After a few seconds of staring (like an idiot), I take it, and he helps pull me to my feet. I offer a quick 'thanks', before checking out the damage the Brown Pot caused.

Luckily, the thing didn't really get my face too bad (most likely due to all the flailing I did). Most of the scratches are on my forearms. The main problem is my hand, which is actually bleeding pretty badly. I have two really big punctures just to either side of my Key Crest, and then a few little ones between them. I think the damn thing actually bit into the crest too.

I groan a bit before digging an Apple Gel from my belt, proceeding to smear it onto my hand (which burns like hell, oW).

"Did you try using Aqua Edge on that thing?" I look up at Lloyd's question. He's currently staring at the puddles I made trying to use said spell.

I blush a little from the memory. "Yyyyeah. But it didn't…work. I have no idea why." That blush quickly turns into a frown, as I begin thinking about the incident further. "I could use Fire Ball just fine, though, so…why can't I use that?"

"Beats me…" Lloyd replies, shrugging. He looks back to me. "Maybe it's more complicated, or something?"

I make a sort of 'I-don't-know' noise, holding up my hands. "Maybe I should ask Genis about it…" I sigh. "Well, whatever. Let's keep going."

"Right." He nods at my statement, and we continue down our way.

Not much happens after that. I end up having to use another Apple Gel on my hand before it heals up fully. I really need to start saving those things – they're actually pretty expensive. Maybe I could learn First Aid or something…

After a while, light starts filtering in from somewhere ahead of us in the hallway. Along with a lot more heat (if that's even possible). It even starts making it a bit hard to breathe.

Eventually, we find our way towards the end of the path. And I say it's the end because the rest of the way is blocked by an enormous amount of rubble. Like, giant boulder-sized rubble. And yet SOMEHOW the doorway leading into the puzzle room is completely free of debris.

I kind of wish it wasn't.

"_Ugh_…" Lloyd groans, looking very flustered (his face is about the color of his gloves). "How the hell is it even _hotter_ here?!"

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it's coming from in there." Good god, my voice sounds like a frog's would with strep throat. "It feels like an _oven_ in here."

We aren't even standing in the doorway right now – the amount of heat billowing out of there is just _that _ridiculous.

I wipe my face, groaning. "Egh…we might as well go in there."

Lloyd makes a ridiculous sounding whine in response. "Do we have to?"

"Eyup." I really don't want to go in either, but dammit, that's where we need to go, so I'm just gonna have to bear it. I brace myself, before making my way through the doorway.

And then I immediately regret it and want to turn back because HOLY FUCKING CHRIST IT'S HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOOOOOOOOOOT.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH MY god it hot." I yell that through my teeth, because at the moment I'm trying to figure out how to breathe this fucking air that is sEARING THE INSIDE OF MY NOSE. Every part of me is tense and stiff and screaming at me to get the hell out of here and my skin is buuuuuuurning oh my god.

Behind me, I vaguely hear a choking noise from Lloyd, who appears to have followed me into the room now, followed by him groaning something involving Martel and something about how his skin is on fire.

I think if it weren't for the Exsphere on my hand right now, I'd be dead. Either that or just collapsed on the floor from a heat stroke.

Suddenly, there's a hazy noise from somewhere to the right.

"Lloyd! Cassie! Is that you guys over there?"

Wait a minute.

"Genis?" I call out (weakly), looking towards the area where I heard him. Unfortunately, my view is blocked by stone pillars. "Where are you?"

"Over here. I can see you guys." I look in the direction of his voice, and notice a small, very tired looking shape peering out from behind one of the taller platform to the right. Almost by the edge towards the lava, YEESH.

"Is the Professor with you?" Lloyd seems to have recovered from his outburst (sorta), and I spot him walk up from behind me.

"Yeah, but she's too busy looking around." I hear some unsettlement in his voice, which probably means that Raine is actually going Ruin Mode all over the place. How the hell she can have the energy to that here, I have no idea. "Never mind that, though – I need to tell you guys about the puzzle."

"Puzzle?" Lloyd sounds confused.

"Yeah. Do you see any torches on the walls?"

I immediately look around, and quickly spot one of said torches, centered in a pillar behind me to the left. "Uh, yeah. Why?" I already know why, but they don't know that, so I'm asking.

"You need to light them. It raises those platforms." He points to the one near the torch I mentioned. "And we need to raise them in order to get to the Seal area. That's what Raine and I figured out, at least."

"Why would lighting torches raise the platforms?" I turn my head to look at Lloyd, who looks very confused at Genis's explanation.

The half-elf just shrugs. "It probably has something to do with Efreet. This is his territory."

Ah yes, Efreet. Can't wait to meet him. Back to the point, though. Lighting them torches.

The first thing I do is make my way over to the torch near the elevated platform I saw earlier (the one with stairs leading up to it). I don't know why I go towards that one first, I just…do. Also it's the only one I saw when I looked around.

Even though the steps up to the platform are pretty wide, I take caution while walking up them. Because no railings plus lava equals a painful, fiery death. I am also very careful on the platform for the exact same reason.

What can I say – I'm paranoid.

When I finally get over to the torch, I take a minute to look it over. It's actually pretty simple looking – just a little alcove in the wall with a small pile of cinders inside. I don't actually see how I'm supposed to light this thing…there's no wick. Or wood, for that matter.

I turn back to look where Lloyd and Genis are. "Hey, so, how am I supposed to light this thing?"

"You need to use magic – just throw a Fire Ball at it!" Genis yells back. "Don't make it too big, though!"

"Okay then!" I yell back. Then I remember something. "Wait, Lloyd- don't you still have the Sorcerer's Ring?"

"Huh?" Lloyd's surprise at me talking to him clues me in that he wasn't paying attention. "Um, yeah. Why?"

"Well…" I shrug at him. "Couldn't you use it to light the torches too?" That was the main component for the puzzle in the game, so I don't see why that wouldn't work here.

"Oh yeah…" Genis's voice echoes in. "Maybe that could work too."

"Really?" Suddenly the brunet sounds really excited. "Awesome!"

I roll my eyes. These people are so silly…

Ignoring the two behind me, I turn my attention back to the torch in front of me. After a bit of thought, I decide to back up a bit before launching a spell. Don't wanna be too close when this thing catches fire.

Okay, let's do this…and let's not try to fuck this up like I did with Aqua Edge earlier. Now, imagine balls of fire…not too big, though. Not too big…okaaaaaay, I think I got this.

I raise my hand. "Fire Ball!"

Like last time, the Exsphere on my hand flashes blue, and a rune appears at my feet. However, now that I'm actually paying attention, it does look a lot fainter and fuzzier than Genis's does. This time, the spell does appear, but it kinda putters around like a dying spark. I really have to concentrate in order to make it go toward the torch.

Thankfully, the weak little spell hits the mark, landing in the alcove. The cinders inside immediately catch fire (which scares the crap out of me), and the pile quickly produces a steady flame.

The loud sound of grating stones (and a yelp from a certain swordsman) suddenly hits my ears. Surprised, I turn around to look directly behind me as, just beyond a stone pillar, a smaller platform than the one I'm standing on rises up to match the level of stairs leading up to…I'm guessing the entrance to the seal.

I blink. "Well, that worked well." I raise my voice, turning back to look where Lloyd and Genis are. "Hey Genis, I got one!"

…Wait a minute, where'd Lloyd go?

I yelp when the platform I'm standing on abruptly begins shaking under my feet. And then I fall to my knees when it lurches upward, and I'm left to desperately grip the edge of the platform as it rises up into the air.

Whaaaaaat the fuck.

When it finally stops, I keep my place, gripping the edge like my life depends on it. A few moments pass of me like this, the only audible sound for me being my heartbeat in my ears, before there's a sudden voice.

"Oops…"

…Ooooof course.

"_Lloyd!_" I screech, turning my head to look towards where his voice came from. I finally spot his crazy hair popping up from just ahead of where that other platform was (I forgot there was a torch there god dammit). "What the heck did you do that for?!"

"I didn't know it was gonna raise that one!"

"Well now I'm stuck up here!" Ooooh my god, I just looked down, I'm so high up, oh god.

"Cassie, calm down."I jump a bit when I hear Raine's voice faintly come out of nowhere. "There's a pair of steps right behind you. You can get down that way."

I blink at this, craning my head around to see if it's true…aaaaand it is. And it leads right on over to where the Seal room entrance is. Hmm, lookit that.

"Uh…okay." I reply, still staring at the conveniently placed pair of stairs. "Thanks, Professor."

But before I can stand up to look, I realize that there's now a problem. "Wait, what about Lloyd? He's stuck down there now."

"I am?" Said swordsman is now out in the open where I can see him, and he looks a bit confused at my statement.

"Yeah…" I look around as if to prove my point. "I don't see any other way for you to get up here…and there's no way to get to where Genis is from where you are, either."

"She's right." Genis perks up from his place (I can't see him now). "If you're gonna re-group with us, you'll need to go all the way back around to where Raine and I came in…"

Aw, man. Tough break for the Lloydie.

He seems to realize the situation as well, because he immediately gives a huge sigh. "Aw man..."

"Do you think you could jump up here, or something?" I blurt out that thought without even really thinking about it first. It actually _seems_ like a sort of good idea, but this ledge is pretty high up…and there's the fate of lava if Lloyd can't.

Then again, he did jump off a cliff and end up perfectly fine, so maybe it's really not a bad idea.

Lloyd looks thoughtful at my suggestion. "…Yeah, maybe." His look turns to one of determination. "Let me try."

The brunet then begins to back away slightly, putting some distance between him and the platform. I wisely decide to back away from the edge before he tries the stunt.

After a slight pause, Lloyd suddenly sprints towards the stairs that led up to the platform. Before he can reach the bottom step, he springs up like a jackrabbit, and just manages to grab the edge of the platform with his left hand.

_God_, this kid has some fucking leg strength.

"Holy shit, dude." I have to exclaim it out loud – I am just that impressed. I manage to find the sense to crawl back over to the edge to help Lloyd up, which is a bit uncomfortable and awkward because I end up having to grab his upper arm to pull him up. Uncomfortable because we're both sweaty messes, _awkward_ becaaaaause Lloyd is actually kinda muscle-ey and I have had next to no contact with dudes in my entire life.

Heghuagagah.

As soon as Lloyd is safely on the platform with me, I let go of him and scoot away a bit so he can catch his breath. And also because I'm still being very awkward. Thankfully it doesn't show on my face because it's already really fucking hot in here.

"_Well_, that worked." I finally say, trying to ignore how hot my face feels (it doesn't work). I glance at Lloyd out of the corner of my eye. "Dude, how the hell can you jump so high?"

He just shrugs, making a noise. "Probably cause of my Exsphere."

If that's the case, I wonder if I'll be able to jump like that…I don't really wanna try, though. Maybe if I wasn't so clumsy.

"Well, we should probably re-group with Genis and Raine." I sigh. Lloyd nods at my suggestion, and stands up, heading towards the stairs behind me.

I decide to follow behind as soon as I can gain the courage to stand up on this stupid thing…fucking heights.

* * *

"_Uh, hey – Genis?"_

"_Hm? What's wrong, Cassie?"_

"_I've got a magic related question for you."_

"_Uh…okay, what is it?"_

"_Well, earlier Lloyd and I ran into some monsters, and I tried using Aqua Edge on them like you did earlier, but…it didn't work."_

"…_Do you even know how to _use_ that spell?"_

"_Well – no, but I don't know how to use Fireball either, and I can still perform it…kinda."_

"_Aqua Edge is more complicated. If you really want to used spells right, you need to know how they work – just trying to imitating them can be kinda dangerous…"_

"…_Oh."_

* * *

I am so fucking nervous right now, I swear to god. I just want to run really, really far away from here because I am nOT READY FOR THIS SHIT. NOT READY. NOOOOOOOOOOOOT READY.

…oh my god stop freaking out, I need to focus. Heeeeeugh…

Okay, let's update, uh…well, right now, everyone's sort of gathered around the entrance warp to the seal room (Kratos and Colette joined us not long after Lloyd and I got to Raine and Genis), and we're basically just trying to formulate some kind of a strategy before we head in. Mainly because we have no idea what we'll be facing once we get into the Seal room. Or at least…they don't. I do.

Raine and Kratos are the ones currently formulating the strategy. I'm not really paying attention, though. Too busy panicking.

How the hell are you supposed to keep calm when you know you're about to fight a giant flaming monster?

Uuuuugh, my hand hurts…

I jump when I feel something tap my shoulder. When I turn, I see that it's Colette, giving me a concerned look.

"Are you okay?" she asks. "You look worried…"

Aw crap, I didn't realize I was being so obvious… "Uh-yeah, Colette, I'm fine. Just…nervous." This is really weird, Colette's been all worried about me since her and Kratos met back up with us – she must have heard me screeching at Lloyd earlier.

…Wait, why is she worried about me? Colette's about to lose some of her humanity here! God, I didn't even think about that…welp, now I feel like an ass.

"Is everyone ready?" Oop, I didn't notice that Raine and Kratos had stopped talking. The mercenary looks over all of us for confirmation, and I'm pretty sure all of us nod in reply (I don't' but I don't think he notices). "Very well – let's go."

I hang back for a second while everyone else heads into the warp. I haven't used one of these yet, so I'm a little apprehensive…ugh, might as well get it over with.

I manage to dart in right before everyone takes off in the warp, sort of squeezing myself in between Colette and Genis. There's a moment where a wall of shimmery light appears around us, and then the warping happens.

And it is the _strangest fucking thing_ I have ever experienced so far. It feels like your being squished and sucked into a vacuum at the same time. And the visual isn't too pretty either – it's like you're going through hyperspace.

When the warp finally stops, I actually almost fall over sideways from being so disoriented. I somehow manage to NOT fall to the ground, though, righting myself after a few clumsy steps. The others seem to be fine though – they probably have more experience with this than I do (Lloyd does look a bit dizzy, though).

The room itself looks almost exactly the same as it did in the game, save for the obvious size difference. And everything looks a bit more ornate. Like, the floor is actually shiny. Wasn't it like that in the Symphonia OVA?

…oh my god, FOCUS.

As everyone walks up to the altar area, Raine stops midway, and looks around in awe.

"This place is also built with magitechnology!" she gushes, and as I walk around her, I notice a very disturbing glint in her eye. "Absolutely amazing!"

She finally walks up to the altar area as I reach the rest of the group, though I'm hanging back because I know what's coming.

Sure enough, as soon as Raine gets close enough, the area around us begins to rumble, causing everyone to jump in surprise.

"Aah! What the-!?" Genis sounds really surprised at the sudden quaking, and as we watch, the altar begins to emit a very bright light, and glowing red spheres erupt from the surface. Everyone backs away at this, and I try _very hard_ not to turn around and run straight back through the warp.

Suddenly, a massive pillar of fire erupts from the altar, causing all of us to recoil in surprise. The pillar continues to rage for a few seconds, before suddenly disappearing…but not before leaving something in its place.

As the last of the embers die away, a massive rumble emits through the room – a rumble, I realize, that is actually a deep growl.

Standing on the altar is a massive shape, in the form of a large, red and black tiger-like animal with glowing yellow stripes. The beast's hide is covered in flame, and its mane is made up of large, crystal spikes that seem to reflect the light of the fire. It raises its head, revealing glowing yellow eyes, and large teeth that remind me of a saber-tooth tiger.

We are now face to face with the Ktugach.

* * *

END SCENE OHOHOHOHOHO

Next chapter should actually be out a lot sooner than this one was, I actually have the next one half done already! Hopefully all chapters will be out sooner now, since I'm writing them ahead of time. :3

**NEXT TIME: Fiery cats and angel wings.**


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